A Complete Body of Divinity

SERMON LIX.

WE are considering of the punishment of the first Transgression; which consists in a sinful and miserable state unto which it hath reduced mankind.

1. THE f • rmer of these is now to be spoken of. That Sin is considerable as a punishment, we have already observed; and are now to take particular notice of the influe • ce, which Adam's fall hath upon mankind, to make them sinners.

THE Answer before us is rather a distribution, than a definition; pointing us to the several ways wherein man's state is now become sinful. And these are reduced to three heads.

• 1. Adam's first Sin is ours by imputation.
• 2. Original Sin is ours by derivation.
• 3. Actual Sin is ours by conversation: that is,
  • 1. The guilt of the first Sin adbering to us.
  • 2. Original Sin dwelling in us.
  • 3. Actual Sin proceeding from us.

1. THEN the first thing here is, That man's state is become sinful, by virtue of the guilt of Adam's first Sin. That we have communion with our first father in his sin, by a righteous imputation of it to us, and consequently are fallen under the guilt of it, hath been sufficiently proved. That there is this woeful infelicity fallen upon men, to be born into the world under guilt, is now to be discovered; it being a punishment following of him: and this will last be seen by taking a brief view of the nature of this guilt. Some there be who reckon this guilt to be one part of original Sin. Others bring it under a distinct head; and it may be reckoned to original sin, as it derives originally from Adam to us; though the different manner of its influence, is such as makes it more proper to look upon it distinctly by itself.

GUILT 〈◊〉 pro ••• 〈◊〉 ob • igation lying upon a p •• p • n •• ich •••• ds him over to suffer the deserved p • n • s • went of his Sin. This is applicable to man both with respect to Adam's sin, and also to original and actual sin: the nature of it being the same in one and the other. And I shall here treat of it once for all in the general notion. Guilt is a Court phrase, and well understood by those who are skilled in Law affairs; and therefore we may borrow light for the illustration of it from the common sentiments of mankind about it in human transactions. And for a more full and clear opening of this matter, let me offer these conclusions.

1. THAT Guilt always supposeth these Three Things.

• (1.) THAT there is a late under which the person 〈◊〉 , and to which be owes obedience. Where there is no law, there can be no transgression, and consequently no forfeiture. None can be a guilty person but a subject, or one that is some way obliged by a law: for he who is under no bond of restraint, but may do what he list, cannot do amiss. Hence that, Rom. 3.19. Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Now it is certain that mankind were placed under the rule of special government by the will & command of God, and the covenant under which they were at first put; and they owed obedience to it, as God who gave it, was their supteam creator and governor.
• (2.) THAT there is a sanction put unto the late in a way of threatening. And indeed, the very nature of a law supposeth such a thing; and this is the difference between a bare command and a law: the former respects only a precept, the latter contains the precept with its sanction. A law is properly an instrument of government, and therefore cannot attain its end, without it be ratified with rewards and punishments hypothetically annexed unto it. Now the latter of these is that which gives occasion for guilt in case: so that if there were no threatening in the law, there could be no guilt derived to the subject: for, because that saith the Sinner shall die, therefore he becomes guilty of death, which otherwise he would not.
• (3.) THAT he is some way or other fallen under that sanction. For herein indeed, as will appear anon, is the very nature of guilt contained. It is not because there is such a clause put into the law, that men must thereupon be necessarily found guilty. The threatening, of it's own nature, is a guard against guilt, if rightly improved 〈◊〉 it only accidentally becomes the occasion of it: there are therefore none guilty but such as are brought under the sentence of the law some way or other. Hence that, 1 Tim. 1.9. The law is not made for a righte • us man, but for the disobedient, &c.

2. HENCE it follows, That Guilt is routed in Sin, and inseparable from it, so long as the man is under the law. Sin and guilt do bear the moral respect one to another of cause and effect; and though these do always go together in time, so that in sinning the man becomes guilty, and falls under it, yet in order of nature sin is the first, because it is the r • ot from which the other springs, and out of which it grows. Hence that, Gen. 4.7. If thou dost not well sin lieth at the door. Sin, i. e. Guilt. And hence it follows, that as long as the law hath hold of the man, and he is included in the sanction of it, it is impossible that he should sin without being guilty. Believers indeed, though they do sin, yet are not strictly guilty, for they are justified, but it is because they • re freed from the law as a covenant. Rom. 6.14. Sin hath reigned unto death. And one way in which sin hath dominion is by guilt. So we read, Rom. 5.21. That as sin hath reigned unto death: even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

3. GUILT may be considered negatively, or what it is not: and so,

• (1.) IT is not the Sin itself which is committed. Though they go together inseparably, yet they are to be considered distinctly: and so they are two quite different things. Sin is an antecedent, Guilt is a consequent: Sin is a moral cause, Guilt is an effect arising from it. And though both of them have a respect to the law, yet it is divers; Sin hath its respect to the preceptive part of the law, as it is a transgression of it; whereas Guilt refers to the minatory part of it, or the sanction, as it brings the man under it. There may therefore be an abstract consideration of sin entertained in the mind, without any reference to the guilt which attends upon it. And so we shall consider of it afterwards.
• (2.) IT is not the suspicion or accusation or indictment of the pers • n for Sin. Lawyers indeed do call the persons suspected, accused, indicted, or arraigned at the bar for a supposed crime, the guilty person; but it is by a catacresis or over-strained metonymy. For all this may be at man's bar, and yet the person purely innocent of the crime charged; and he may be prosecuted either upon mistake, or malice, and by the information of false witnesses. Now he cannot properly be both innocent and guilty at the same time. And though there be no such mistake at God's bar, since He knows all; and will indict none but the guilty: yet such a process presumes an antecedent guilt upon which it is legally engaged in. So that the man is not guilty because he is so proceeded against, but he is so prosecuted because he is supposed to have been. Before guilty.
• (3.) It is not the verdict brought in against Ha • upon trial. This indeed declares the man to be guilty, which before was under question, and so it legally puts him into a readiness for a sentence of condemnation to pass upon him; but it doth not make him so. For there are some that justify the wicked, and condemn the righteous. And if the verdict given be right, it supposeth the man to have been really guilty, before it past; for they do but find the case as it is, and determine it. So that if he had not first been guilty in himself, he is injured and abused by such a declaration. There was such a verdict brought in against Jesus Christ Himself, Mat. 26.66. They answered and said, H • is guilty of death.
• (4.) MUCH less is it the sentence which is past by the Judge after the trial. For, in a righteous and fair process, the man is first fou • d and pronounced guilty, before such a sentence passeth upon him; and it is the ground or foundation upon which it proceeds. Condemnation presumes guilt as the reason of it, and therefore cannot be the thing it-self.

4. GUILT may be considered positively. And so it may be cleared up in these Assertions.

(1.) GUILT is a relation which the person bears to the law. It belongs to the head of relation; we therefore observed, that it always supposeth a law, and a duty of obedience lying upon the man unto the law. Now all mankind are related to the law, either 〈◊〉 keepers or breakers of it: and this late of respect is that from whence guilt doth p •• ceed. So that as soon as ever the man h ••• done ought that is against the law, he is immediately guilty, whether any process be made against him or no; because he hath this armed the law against himself. Hence that, Mat. 5.22. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall 〈◊〉 in danger of the judgment. The same word with that, Mat. 26.66. rendered Guilty.

(2.) GUILT is always personal. We m ••• here distinguish of it as to it's derivation, and it's determination. It may derive from 〈◊〉 common source and original, and from t •• first sin of Adam have all mankind contract •• guilt, (as hath before been evidenced:) 〈◊〉 it determines in individuals. Ezek. 18.20. The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. Pros. 9.12. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for 〈◊〉 self: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Everyone must give an account of himself to God: everyone must pass a personal trial before God's tribunal, and stand or fall according as he is found.

(3.) GUILT hath a proper respect unto p • nishment. As it looks back to sin in which i • was contracted, so it looks forward to the penalty which is by it deserved: it is something that intervenes between the fault and the recompense; and because there is a close connection between that and punishment, it is reckoned to it. And there are two things wherein this respect is to be observed,

• 1. BY it the person is made obnoxious to punishment. And hence the word is translated, in danger, Mat. 5.22. i • • uts him in the way of it, and lays him open unto it. For,

  (1.) THERE is an imputation of sin which may be made unto him. He may be charged as a sinner; he is legally such an one; and this imputability is essential to guilt, whether the person have himself really committed it, or in way of exchange taken upon him the person of the sinner, with respect to the law; as Christ hath done for his redeemed, and is accordingly said to be made sin. 2 Cor. 5.21. and so they have their sins laid up • n him, Isai. 53.6. All we like sheep have gone estray: we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities • f us all. Or derives it from another by virtue of a legal in-being, as we all do from our first Parents.

  (2.) HE is hereby fallen under the threatening, and way expect the execution of it. He is come within the reach of it; the threatening indeed is hypothetical, but the supposition is now in regard of him become a position, so that he is certainly comprehended under it; he hath therefore reason to be afraid of the wrath of God; he may read his name among those whom the law of God hath doomed to death, and that he is worthy to die: he is in the way of it. Rom. 3.16. Destruction and misery are in their ways.

• 2. THERE is also an obligation lying upon hi • to suffer punishment, and be cannot escape it. The danger before mentioned atiseth from hence; but among men a criminal though exposed, may hope to avoid it, but it is not so here. For,

  (1.) THE law hath already past the sentence upon him. Guilt is by some defined, to be a sentence put upon a sinner to die. But then we must remember, that there is a sentence past in the law generally, antecedent to that which is past by the Judge upon trial; and it must refer to this. And indeed it is nothing else but the particular application of this sentence unto him, by his falling under it. The law saith, the sinner shall die, he is now become a sinner, and therefore the law reacheth to him, and saith that he shall die: and this is truly and really a state of guilt which he is in.

  (2.) THE law is positive. The threatening is without any reserve. Eve missed it when she minced it, and made it no more than an hazard. Gen. 3.3. God, who is the lawgiver, had declared it with greatest asseveration, Gen. 2.17. Yea, it was strengthened or ratified in that it came in the way of a covenant; so that there is no room left for the man to feed himself up with an hope, that he may avoid, and the sentence not be executed. And,

  (3.) GOD Himself stands engaged to his own l •• . It is His, and He will see that it have its efficacy, and this is manifest from the fore-hinted consideration, that He put it into a covenant, wherein He no less bound Himself, than He did the creature: so that together with His holiness, and justice, which are deeply concerned in the sanctions of the law, there is His truth and unchangeableness also interested in it, and He cannot go beck with honor: and therefore we have that assurance given us, Mat. 5.18. For verily I s • y unto you, till heaven & earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

  (4.) HENCE, Guilt is the sinners pris • n which holds him fast. The word Met. 5.22. in danger, signifies one that is held in. Guilt is a strong chain that the sinner is bound withal to hold him fast unto judgment, it is that which shuts him up to judgment. Gal. 3.22, 23. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by saith of Jesus Christ might be given to t •• m that believe. But before saith come, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the saith, which should afterwards be revealed. And as long as he is under it, there is no possibility for him to escape Mat. 23.33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

• 3. GUILT 〈…〉 tr • sawes that the punishment is deserve 〈…〉 may be under 〈◊〉 obligation to 〈…〉 • ot truly guilty, but 〈…〉 not j • stly so, but injuri ••• 〈◊〉 . A • d here three things are to be sup •••• d for this,

  (1.) THAT the law according to which he becomes guilty, is a right • ous law. Human laws are not always so. It was alleged by the Jews against Christ Himself, Joh. 19.7. We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. But that did not render Him guilty, though by such a law he was so reputed. There have been laws in all ages made against the faithful servants of Christ, and they have, been proceeded against under the pretext of them laws, and accordingly been brought in guilty and condemned: but this is a persecution, and they for all this were innocent persons. Paul therefore justifies the law, in order to the yielding himself guilty, Rom. 7.12.

  (2.) THAT the man hath really transgressed this law. It is true, this alone is not sufficient to make a man stand guilty before man's Tribunal, because they are to proceed secundum allegata et probata, and if there is no sufficient evidence to fasten the crime upon the person, he must be acquitted; but yet if he hath indeed done it, he is really guilty; yea though his own conscience should not for the present accuse him, because he hath done the things for which he is sentenced by the law.

  (3.) THAT the sentence of the law be no more than the merit of the cause. Indeed this might be referred to the first, for the sanction is a part of the law, and if that be unjust, the law is not righteous: but however, the preceptive part of the law may be right, where the penalty may exceed, and so the punishment in the degree of it not merited: all human laws ought not to be written in blood: but as to the divine law, its punishments are right, and no more than the demerit of sin, Rom. 6.23, the sinner therefore deserves to die, Rom. 1.32.

4. HENCE, Guilt hath always these, three co ••• mitants attending upon it; V • Z.

• (1.) SHAME. As praise attends upon innocence, to blame is inseparable from guilt. The guilty sinner deserves to be found fault withal, for it is by doi • g the things wh • ch ought not to be done that he brings himself under guilt; and therefore ought to be reproved for it. So the Prophet to him, 2 Chron. 16.9. Herein thou hast done foolishly. And God expects that sinners should charge themselves upon this account, as Job 33.23. He l • oketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it p •• sited me 〈◊〉 .
• (2.) SHAME. This naturally follows upon the conviction of guilt which is fastened upon men. Shame is an everlasting companion of sin a disgrace is cast up • n him by it; and his guilt exposeth him to those things that are shameful; it makes them naked. Gen. 3.7. Sin and • av • nts to cast a bl • mish upon the name of God, but he returns it upon the sinner himself. For a man to stand exposed to all penalties for his faults, is his disgrace. Prov. 13.5. A wicked man is • athsome, and cometh to shame.
• (3) HORROR. Sense of guilt makes men terribly afraid. Gen. 2.8, 9, 10. and this is the very reason of all the remorses of conscience which wicked men are corroded withal, which makes them afraid where no fear appears, and makes them to be within like a raging sea, though they outwardly prosper, and there is no man can tell what ails them: but it is guilt apprehended that torments them, and makes them to feel an hell in their own breasts; they start and fly at the shaking of a leaf, and would run away from themselves, if possibly they could. They are self judged, self-condemned, they know that they have committed such things as are worthy of death, and they live in a fearful expectation of it every moment.

USE. I. HERE we may in part see what a fearful thing it is to Sin. Vain creatures are ready to make a light matter of it, they take little notice of it, but pass it over with disregard. Well, but remember, that you cannot commit the least sin, but you thereby bring yourselves inevitably under guilt; and do you know what you do on that account? Let me tell you they are strong cords that bind the sinner, it is a fast prison that you are laid up in by it. Sin may be sweet in the act, the commission may please you, but know it, as soon as ever it is done, it will sting like a serpent. The law stands against you, its sentence takes hold of you; and commits you to the Judgment of the great day. Let young ones think of this when they are in their career. Eccl. 11.9. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou that for all these things God will bri •• thee into judgment.

USE II. LET this serve to convince every unregenerate sinner of his present miserable estate. And Oh that you would be •• erious, whether younger or older. What you shall be hereafter God known, but I assure you, yo • are guilty, and in so being, you are in a most dreadful condition. There is an hand writing of terror against you, and it may make your joints to tremble, ma • your m • rch, & make you put on inch cloth and walk sofily. The sentence of death is upon you, and you are obnoxious to it every moment; in guilt all the curies of the book of God are fallen upon you, and have you in chase. Deut. 2 • .15. But it •• ad come to pass, if thou wilt not heathen unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these c •• ses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. You are c • ndemned already, Joh. 2.18. The law hath done it, it hath been long since recorded in the book of God concerning all such as you, that you are children of wrath, & all the 〈◊〉 me its of hell are your portion from the hands of the Almighty. God the great & righteous Judge, is under an oath to see you damned, if you repent not. Deut. 32.40, 41, 42. F •• l life up my hand to heaven, and say, I live 〈◊〉 ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and 〈◊〉 hand take hold on judgment; I will render ••• geance to mine enemies, and will reward them 〈◊〉 hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with 〈◊〉 (and my sword shalt devour flesh) and that 〈◊〉 the blood of the slain, and of the captives 〈◊〉 the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. 〈◊〉 hath swore and he will not repent. And you Children, remember, that you brought this guilt. with you into the world, and it 〈◊〉 upon you, and if you had never committed one actual sin, yet this saith, you must die and be damned forever, if you get not this 〈◊〉 removed. Hear what God himself saith, E ••• 34.7. He will by means clear the guilty. And 〈◊〉 you live one moment longer in quiet, 〈◊〉 this sentence? Can you eat and drink, and sleep, and play under the load of guilt? and bear the infinite weight of it, without being burdened, and crying out with the horror of it; who do not know but that before, 〈◊〉 next hour is over, it will sink you down into the pit, from whence there is no recovery? Oh let, this make Christ precious.

SERMON LX.

II. MAN's Estate is become sinful by wertu • of Original Sin dwelling in us. The guilt of the first sin was ours by imputation, original sin is ours by derivation. I am not now about to inquire how or after what manner our first Parents derived this contamination to their Posterity, we took notice of that under a former Question, to far as we might with sobriety. Our present work is, to look into the nature of Original Sin, according as we are directed to it in the present Answer. This we have reduced under two leads. 1. T •• want of original right •• s • 〈◊〉 2. The corruption of the w • ole nature. And bath of these belong to original sin, though the letter is more commonly understood of it; yet not excluding the former. But I shall endeavor to give a more particular account of this matter in the following Conclusions.

1. THAT all sin is a swerving of the reasonable creature from the law of God. This hath been already cleared up, when we took the account of the nature of sin; and needs not to be further illustrated; only it is to be remembered, that any moral defect in such a creature, whereby it falls short of that law, which is its rule, is to be reputed sin.

II. THAT in the reasonable creature too consider both its nature and its actions. The nature of a creature is those powers and principles which are put into it, whereby it is re • dred capable of acting in its own orb. The nature then of a reasonable creature, as such, is that power which it had given it to act as a moral agent under a rule: and that is an ability of knowing, and electing, or choosing & refusing. Its Actions are such things as it doth by the exertion of that nature, or principle which is in it; or whatsoever it doth under the influence of its reason and will.

III. THAT the swerving of the rational nature from its rule, is properly original sin. Give me leave to illustrate this more particularly. Here then observe,

1. THAT God at first put into man a nature suited to his end. That all things were made by God for an end, is evident, because He is a most wise agent, and therefore would not make anything in vain. Now though the general end of all things be one, viz. the Glory of God; yet as there were diverse natures put into creatures, so there was a different manner in which they were to serve to their end; and accordingly we take up various notions respecting the end itself. Now man was appointed to serve to the glory of God, by an active conformity to the law of obedience given him. Hence that, Job 28.28. And unto man be said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. And the wisdom of God did accordingly put into him, a nature adapted hereunto. See, Eccl. 7.29.

2. THE rectitude of man's nature, was an habitual conformity to the law of God. I mean the rule of special government, according to which he was to be judged and rewarded. When God made man, He knew what He made him for, and made him accordingly. He was to be a moral agent, and therefore had not only moral powers put into him, but also a disposition cleaving to them, whereby they were titted to act regularly: a natural bent and inclination in them to close with the rule, and a complete ability so to do: the bias of man's nature was set right; and this was truly his righteousness end holiness, which is therefore said to be renewed in convention, Eph. 4.24.

3. HENCE by the •••• ssion of this reclitude and c • ntructing of the whereby habit, man's nature is swerved fr •• the law. This is a necessary inference, for, if man's nature were by that conformity adapted to the rule, whatsoever is in it defective therein, or repugnant thereto, must needs put him off from this rule; the loss of the habit, and the introduction of an opposite habit, makes a change in the nature, when the habit it solf belongs to the nature of the thing. The man was made by rule, it then he became other than he was made, he ceaseth to be according to rule.

4. THIS is sin properly so called. There are many who dery this, but they err, not knowing the truth: that it is sin is evident, For,

• (1.) THE Scripture calls it so: And that gives things their right names. This title is in the word of God conferred upon that which can be applied to no other but this. What else could David aim at in, Psal. 31.5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. This is called the frame of the heart, and we see what is ascribed to it, Gen. 6.5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. and ver. 12. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his very upon the earth. And that can intend no other but sinful evil; it is called indwelling sin, Rom. 7.18. and that cannot be actual sin. It is called the flesh, a body of death, a law in the members warring against the law of God, &c.
• (2.) THE nature of in shows it to be sin. The definition of sin agrees to it; it is Anomy; or frame contrary to the law of God, and that must needs be a sinful frame. The Apostle expresseth this opposition in his own example, Rom. 7.14. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. Because the law is right, therefore the man must needs be wrong; and that with reference to the law according to which sin and heliness are to be judged of: it is habitual unrighteousness, and that is sin. 1 Joh. 5.17. All unrighteousness is sin.
• (3.) ITS fruits prove it to be sin. It is our Savior's rule, that we are to judge of the tree by the fruits, if they be corrupt, that is so too. Now all actual sin is the refult of this; and there can nothing else but sin arise and derive from it. If ever this nature stirs in the man and puts forth, either in thoughts, words of deeds, it is nothing but sin; nay it it be in things lawful in themselves, or duties owing to God, yet it turns them into sin: the showing of the wicked is sin, and his prayer is an ab • mination: yea indeed all the sin in the world comes from hence Mat. 15.19. we have a • • oo • it of the generation of actual sins. Jam. 1.15. When last hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. See Psal. 58.3, 4.
• (4.) THE effects which is morally produceth show it to be sin. I mean the penalties that arise from it. It is that which makes God to loath men. He despiseth their image, Psal. 73.20. It makes men to be children of wrath, Eph. 2.3. There is nothing else but sin that brings death, either temporal, or eternal upon men. Now it is certain, that there are multitudes that die, who never sinned actually. Rom. 5.14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression. It is true, the guilt of the first sin imputed is enough to justify this, but this corruption of nature goes also into it; and therefore they are said to be unclean, by origination, Job 14.4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. Why else are Infants baptized?

IV. IN Original sin there are two things,

• 1. THE loss of original righteousness, or of the image of God: and this is the privative part of it. Here observe,

1. THAT by the image of God, we are to understand those habits of sanctification which were infused into man at the first. I know there are divers sentiments of Divines, about the image of God, which was on man at first; some there be who distinguish between the natural image, and the moral; making the former to consist in the rational powers, of understanding and will; and they divide the latter into the external, consisting in his dominion over the creatures, and internal consisting in the habits of grace or holiness put into him: but I reckon this last, or the internal moral image, to be the only thing that is disigned in Scripture; and therefore it is only of this that a renovation is spoken of in the Gospel. Eph. 4.24. Col. 3.10. and when we are told of their being renewed, it supposeth that once they were in him.

2. THIS image belonged to man's nature at first, considered as a moral agent, under a rule. There is great dispute, whether this image were natural or supernatural, and I suppose it is best reconciled by saying that it was connatural. It could not belong to the nature of man, merely considered as humanity, for then he would cease to be man upon the loss of it: but consider him as a creature made for such an end, it belonged to his nature, because else he could not be fit for his end: his rule had been in vain, without such a conformity in his nature to it: and for that reason his being without it, hath made him unprofitable, Rom. 3.12. He could never have served God, in conformity to his revealed will, without it; and so the command would not have been holy, and just, and good, and he himself would have been made in vain.

3. BY Using of this image he hath contracted to his nature these two things,

• (1.) AN utter impotency to do that which is truly good. Not only doth he not do it, which belongs to actual sin, but he cannot do. Once he could, but now all his strength is gone. Hence natural men are said to be within strength, Rom. 3.0. He is in no wise able to put forth any action that is pleasing to God. Rom. 8.8. So then they that are in the fless cannot please God. This J • s • ua put them in mind of, •• sh. 24.19. And on this account men are said to be dead, Eph. 2.1. They can indeed do the material part of duties, but they cannot do them after a right manner, from a right principle, or for a right end. Hence that, Isai 66.2. He that killeth an ex, is as if be slew a man: he that sacrificeth a law, as if be out off a dogs neck: he that effereth as oblation, as if he offered swine's blood: be that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.
• (2.) AN universal indisposition to that which is good. As they have no power so they have no inclination to it, they have no desire after the service of God. Job 21.14. Therefore they say unto God, depart from us: for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. They may indeed have a desire to p • form formal service, as, Isa. 48.2. They call them selves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel. A corrupt carnal principle in them may prompt them to that, but to honor and glorify God they have no appetency of: they are fallen short or that, ( Rom. 3.13.) and the reason is, because they have nothing left in them which is suitable to such a service; the service is holy, but their holiness is gone.
• 2. THE corruption of the whole nature by the introduction of a contrary image. We read of fallen Adam, Gen. 2.7. We are told of two opposite images, 1 Cor. 15.49. There is now the image of sin upon man's nature, and from thence also there do arise two things,

• (1.) AN utter averseness to that which it spiritually good. This belongs to the positive part of original sin; for though man hath lost his first principles, yet he hath contracted others, and this is one quality of them, that they set him against that which is good, so that he is extremely cross to a closure with the law of God; there is in him a natural antipathy against and abhorrence from it, Rom. 8.7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And this notes the greatest distance of nature that can be; an enemy may possibly be reconciled, but enmity never can, that must be destroyed, if ever there be a reconciliation.
• (2.) A violent prepenseness to all that is evil. An eager inclination to break the command; hence the command itself raiseth motions in him to sin, Rom. 7.5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth frait unto death. Although he be dead to good, yet he is lively to evil. There is a thirst in the man after it. It is livelily illustrated, Job 15.16. How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like water? The thirsty man doth not more long for a draught of water, to satisfy his craving appetite, than he doth to be committing of sin. The heart doth not more pa • t after the brooks of water, than the heart of man doth after iniquity; he delights in sin, as the fish doth in water, which is his element: nothing better pleaseth him than to enjoy it, nothing is more irksome, than to be kept from it. Prov. 4.16. For they sleep not except they have done • is •• ef, and their sleep to taken away unless they cause some to fall.

V. THIS depravation of nature is universal. I am not now speaking of that universality which respects the whole kind; that hath been already treated of, but of that which extends to the whole man. And this may be observed in two things,

• 1. THE image of God is wholly lost. It is not only crazed, & weakened, as some would have it, but there is none of it remaining. As to what men call the natural image, and the moral external, I do not here speak; I know that man hath an understanding and will still, and affections, and conscience, and he hath a sort of government over the creatures: but his original sanctification is quite rooted out, and there are no remains of it in him. Paul is full 〈◊〉 this, Rom. 7.18. In me (that is in my flesh) •••• eth no good thing. There remains no future of true holiness upon any of his sa ••• ies or members; he hath no spiritual discreting left in him of the things of God. 1 Cor. 2.14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto 〈◊〉 neither can be know them, because they are spiritually discerned. He is become brutish in this regard, he can understand rationally but not spiritually. He hath no freedom of will to that which is good, so as to make choice of it. The natural freedom of his will is not good, hence he hath a spontaneity in his elections, and his will is not forced, but he cannot choose the things of God: he hath no love of God left in him, he cannot go forth is his defires after him, as his chief good: he is darkness itself, and enmity itself, and what can be said more?
• 2. THOSE corrupt principles do fill the whole 〈◊〉 . They are not only in him, but they run through him, and wholly occupy him; he is a mere lump of opposition to God and his ways. For,

(1.) THIS corruption hath wholly perverted his superior faculties. Man is principally and most properly accounted a moral agent, by reason of his understanding and will: for it is by virtue of these that he is to be treated after a rational manner; and therefore the most woeful efficacy of this depravation is to be seen in these.

1. IN his understanding. This was to be eyes to him, to point out his way; and not only is it become blind and ignorant in spirituals, but perverse too; it is filled full of cursed principles, which pervert and lead it out of the way; he calls good evil, and evil good; he judgeth of things just contrary to the truth; he reckons the service of God to be unprositable, and the service of sin only advantageous and delectable: accounts man's felicity to consist, not in the fruition of. God, but, in some other thing: and this judgment rules him. Hence this corruption is to be seen,

2. IN his will. This was to, govern his elections; but not only can he not choose God for his portion, but he is willfully fet, and inclined to stand, at an everlasting distance from Him; he therefore bids God to depart from him, Job 21.14. saith that Christ shall not reign over him, Luk. 19.14. he is not to he persuaded to come to Christ. Joh. 5.40. he refuseth the good: his heart is set in him to do wickedly; he will none of God, Psal. 81.11.

(2.) IT hath vid • ared bis inseriour, faculties and powers; making them servants to sin. What this influence is, is not easy to describe; but we know that all are the subjects of sanctification. 4 Thes. 5.23. and therefore they are under this pollution. Hence;

1. IN the affections there is a crooked bias • . These are the feer of the soul, the handmaids of the will: but these are become exorbitant, all of them falsely placed, and violently acted, in a wrong way, and on wrong objects, he not only doth not love God, but he hates Him. Rom. 1.30. nor only doth he not hate sin, but he loves it, and insatiably desires it. Jer. 2.25. I have loved strangers and after them will I go.

2. IN his senses and members, he is enslaved to sin. Hence that, Rom. 6.19. Ye have yielded your members. servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity, unto iniquity. Every thing in him, his outward senses, his eye, his ear, his taste, his hands, his feet; his inward senses, his fancy, cogitation, memory, all are ready to execure the commands of his depraved will, and yield obedience to every lust of concupiscence; so that there is nothing left in him but that which is unclean.

USE. I. LEARN hence what a wretched creature man is become by the fall. And this may help us to hide pride from us all. If the enquiry be. what is man? Here is an answer sufficient to make us cover our faces, and hide our heads: he is a creature utterly void of all goodness, and a seminary of all manner of abominations. There are not the vilest actions of the worst sinners, who have been monsters of men, whose actions stand as so many blots upon Scripture register, but there are the seeds of them all in the heart of every child of Adam. There is not the least part of any Theological good left in any of his posterity, by nature. There is a concatenation of all sins in the spawn of them within, a whole old man, that hath every lust, as so many members, belonging to it; this is man: think of it, and be proud if you can.

USE. II. SEE here the reason why there is so much actual sin committed in the world. When you hear of grievous enormities daily committed, wonder not at it, but wonder at the mercy of God, which hath kept you from the like. If we see a clock set wrong and weights hung •••• on, we may expect it will strike false. An instrument out of tune, if plaid upon must needs jar 〈◊〉 a corrupt fountain, that is always running, will ever send out corrupt streams. All these vile sins are but the running over of the scum and filth that is within. O •• g. •• l sin is the mother, and this is the fra •• full progeny of it. What was the reason of the wretchedness of the old world? See, Gen. 6.5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil •• • i •• ally. Hence it is that man's life is nothing else but a trade of sin, shooting out actions, as so many arrows, and all missing the mark. Hence the heart swarms with evil thoughts, the tongue breaks forth into idle, foolish and obscene talk, and all the members into eccentrical actions: such are the workings of corrupt nature in the children of men, and the best are not here wholly freed from them.

USE. III. THIS tells us why children take so readily to evil from the cradle. We have reason enough to observe it, they need no teacher; how soon do they vent anger, envy, wickedness? alas! they hate it in them as soon as they are born. Isal. 58.3. They are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born. It is their nature, they are sinful, before they are actual sinners; and therefore no wonder if they prove such, as soon as they can act. And this, if rightly thought of, may be a solemn caution to parents, to take heed how they nourish this corruption in them, by taking delight in it, or setting them an example of it; yea to begin to lay early at this root, and endeavor the killing of it.

USE. IV. HENCE it is not enough for us to repent of actual sins. Repentance, if true, must not tarry here, but go further: we must go to the fountain of Christ's blood, not only to heal the wounds and sores made by actual sins, but to dry up the fountain of original concupiscence. There is a body of sin, which we all carry about with us, and it will drag us down to the bottomless pit of everlasting destruction, no less certainly, though possibly in a flower pace, than the grossest abominations of the most lewd and enormous sinners. Take heed then of skining over the sore of natural corruption, by outward restraint; if your soul be not healed, you will die of it.

USE. V. LEARN hence that there are none of us but are undone without Christ. It may be, some have lived soberly and laudably to men, but alas, original sin yet abides, and there is death belongs to that; and there is none but Christ can deliver you from it. It may be, you Children think you are innocent, and out of danger, because you have not lived to fall into those lewdnesses which others have fallen into; but remember you are by nature a generation of vipers, you have the adders poison in you, you are vile and cursed creatures, because of that indwelling sin, which took up its lodging within you as soon as you had a being, and without the blood of Christ to clean •• you from this, you must perish forever without hope. Make basic then, and 〈◊〉 into Him, else you will 〈◊〉 the wages o • this s •• to be death.

SERMON LXI.

III. MAN's state is become sinful by vert •• of actual sins proceeding from it. Actual sin is • urs by conversation; and this also is befallen us, in way of penalty of the first sin. For the illustration of this we may inquire, 1. Into the nature of actual sin. 2. • i •• man's state is made sinful by it?

1. TOUCHING the nature of it; it may be thus described; Actual sin is the swerving of man's actions from the law of God. Here it may be considered,

• 1. What we are to understand by an action?
• 2. In what respect it becomes sinful?

1. WHAT are we to understand by an action? Ans. AN action, in the common nation of it, is the application of the saculty to the object. In every agent we consider a power which is in it, and that seated in the faculties, and is in them a principle of operation, which is called the habit; and is that whereby it is sitted to serve to its end: and there is such a power in every faculty, and that various, according to the end and use of it. Hence, there is the intellectual power, and the visive power, &c Now whensoever this power is exerted by any faculty in the creature, that is property an action; and that is always by applying to an object. Now these actions are some natural, and some rational and spontaneous. Hence the distinction between natural and voluntary agents; and these latter are either elicit 〈◊〉 imperate. Elicit are such as do immediately proceed from the will at the dictate and direction of the understanding, as choosing and refusing: imperate are, such as are performed by the other powers in man at the command of the will. These actions again are divided into thoughts, words and deeds: the former whereof are performed in and by the heart or inner man; the latter by the outward man or bodily members. And because these are all of them under the influence of the understanding and will, they are therefore called human actions; and all such come under our present consideration. Here also we are to observe, under the head of actions we rank omissions; not only because they refer unto them negatively; but also because they are in some sort voluntary, and there is, at least implicitly, an elicit act of the will about them; in which respect they may come under the denomination of actual sins.

2. IN what respect it becomes sinful?

Ans. IN general, the sinfulness of an action is a moral respect cleaving to it, in regard whereof 〈…〉 of its In •• end. And this is vulgarly called the Obliquity of the action. The 〈◊〉 of moral agents, or causes by coun ••• come under a double consideration, phy ••• and •• ral. 〈◊〉 is nothing else but me exerting of a natural power, by apply 〈…〉 to an Object; and so there is a natural 〈◊〉 clear: g • to it as an act: nor c •• it 〈◊〉 done without divine cooperation. M • ral is a respect that it bears to a Rule, by which the agent is obliged, and either agrees with 〈◊〉 , or is repug • ant to it, and so is either right or wrong; and this repugnancy denominates it sinful. But this will be more distinctly cleared in these particulars,

1. GOD having made man a reasonable Creature, transacts with him as such. Though God hath an absolute Sovereignty over His own works, yet when He made the creation, with a design to govern it to His own glory, His manifold. Wisdom exerted itself, in suiting of every sort or ta • k of Being, for the way in which He would have glory by it, and then managing it according to that aptitude which He hath put into it. Now he made a rational creature, able to know and choose his own actions, and thereby capable of 〈◊〉 treated with in the way of a Covenan •• •• d, having so made him, He thus dealt with him. We therefore find such an account given of what past between God and him, Gen. 2.16, 17. So that there is a special government which he is under the obligations of.

2. FOR this end God gave him a Law to regulate his Life and Actions by. He prescribed to him a Rule of living and obliged him to walk in Conformity thereto. This is that which we call the law Moral, because it was accomodated, both in the things commanded, and in the manner of giving it to a moral agent, and it consists of commands natural and positive; whence the distinction of Duties into moral natural and moral positive. Natural were such as were imprinted on the heart of man in his creation, and he was able to read them by the light of nature, which was at first put into him; being suited to the nature of man, as it was under divine government, and bound to serve to the glory of God; some remains whereof there are still to be found in fallen man; hence that, Rom. 2.1 • . For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a him unto themselves. Positive were, such as God expressed His Sovereignty in, and the reason of his obedience to them upon God'. revealing His will about them to man, was contained in the law of nature, telling him that God is his Lord and Lawgiver.

3. THIS Law i • made up of positive and negative Precepts. There are two ways in which God required of man to express his Obedience to Him, viz. by doing the things which He commands him, and avoiding the things which He forbids him: hence therefore there are i • this Rule directions 〈◊〉 both about what he is to do, and what he is to avoid. God saith unto him, this thou shalt do and that 〈◊〉 shalt not do: and 〈…〉 sour crimes laid down 〈…〉 es 〈◊〉 yet 〈…〉 them in ••• ed in everyone. And them 〈…〉 retre • t obedie • c • t • God wether a careful attends court both. Happiness: 〈…〉 to the tea •• ur of the Law, is corrected with doing, Rom. 10 5. For M • ses 〈…〉 which is • f the 〈◊〉 , that the man which doth th • se things, shall li •• e by them.

4. THOSE P • c •• sts 〈◊〉 to the Matter, Manner and P • d of the 〈◊〉 . These three go inseparably into the c • nstituting of an act o • Obedie • ce; and it may not be without any one of them.

• (1.) THERE is the Matter, or thing on which the action • erman ••• es. This is that which the Precept expressly points us unto; it regulates the action with respect unto its object, and so it directly saith, this thou shalt do, this thou shalt not do. We are to have a careful eye to the thing itself, and be exact in complia • ce there •• , else it is no Obedience, for this reason the command saith, thou shalt not Kill, thou shalt keep the Sabbath, &c.
• (2.) THERE is also the Manner; and that is by the influence of a gracious principle in the man. There is not only the doing of the thing, but the heart with which it is done; hence we read, 2 Chron. 25.2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. All fruits participate in the nature of the tree that bears them; it must be a good tree if it bears good fruit. Man had God's Image on him at first, which was necessary, not so much to enable him to do the matter of duty, as to do it graciously; there must be holiness attending it.
• (3.) AND there is the End for. The Rule is given Man to direct him to his End; if then he doth not aim at it in his actions, he doth not do acts of obedience to God. We are exhorted, 1 Cor. 10.31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. For this is that for which we were put under the precept, that we might glorify God; and He requires of us that we should carry this before us, as the ultimate end of our whole life, and that all other designs which we may lawfully have an eye to, be entirely subordinated to this, and serve it.

5. HENCE the sinfulness of the action con •• is in the sailure of any one of these things. Any one moral defect, in what regard soever, is enough to spoil the action. For, to the making any action reputed an act of entire o •• dience, it must want none of the things that are requisite; so that by the absence of 〈◊〉 it becomes defective, and being morally 〈◊〉 is therefore sinful. Hence it is not on •• sin 〈◊〉 a man to do the things which are forbidden: but also not to do what is commanded: though ••• ed emithen and comm • then are hate • y 〈◊〉 at all separable lience, though a ma • keeps to the letter of the law never to exectly, as to the ma •• tial part of the duty, yet it his heart be not right in it, that makes it si • full for all. That is the conplaint, Psal. 7 • .36, 3 • . Nevertheless, they did 〈…〉 , and th • , hed unibi •• with their tongue. For their heart was not right which him; netheir were they stedsasi in his c • v • nant. This is it that makes the plowing of the wicked to be sin, and his prayer an abomiration; because they derive not from a gracious principle in them. On this score it is that all the specious actions of the Gentiles, exerted, by that which they call moral virtue, were but splendid • peceata, because they had no root of sanctifying and saving grace to grow upon. The not doing of them also for a right end, puts the same denomination upon them. Fasting is in itself a duty, but yet for this God rejected theirs, Zech. 7.5. Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me. Isai. 58.4. B ••• ld ye fast for str •• e and debate, and to smile with the fist of wickedness, ye shall not just as ye d • this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Prayer and giving of Alms are good things, but see, Mat. 6. begin. Hence also though the end be right, and Men should design the glory of God in what they do, yet if the thing done be materially against the law, a good end will not excuse it from being sinful, for we are cautioned against doing evil that good may come of it; and whatsoever is contrary to the letter of the law, is so.

6. THAT which makes the action sinful, is, because the exerbitation is voluntary. It is certain that sin can be charged upon no other creatures, but such as are causes by counsel. A beast cannot be said to sin, and why? but because it hath no moral powers in it; it cannot make a rational and deliberate choice, but is acted by instinct. All human actions are voluntary; and though the fall hath obliterated many principles Theological in man, and woefully blurred the rest, so that he doth many things ignorantly, and calls good evil, and evil good, by which his will is perverted, yet this belongs to original sin, which hath left such an impotency, and exorbitancy, on the faculties, and doth not make the action not to be voluntary, but only discovers the unhappiness that is betallen man. Because a man chooseth his own actions, and they are so many aberrations from the law of God, therefore are they sinful actions; hence the Scripture so frequently chargeth the sin upon Men's wills.

II. HOW Man's State is made sinful by allual all Sins?

A. WE are here to remember that we are considering this as part of Man's punishment for the first sin. And we have already observed, that God doth punish sin with sin, and it is indeed a most fearful punishment; yea all punishments refer to it as the ••• torious and procuring cause. Here let us observe,

1. THAT Man's whole State is rendered sasai by re • s • n of Original Sin. That hath •• ptied him of all that is good, and filled 〈◊〉 with all evil. He cannot be more univer •• lie, habitually sinful, than he is, as he deti • es from fallen man. The moral image of God which was once on him, is quite gone. Read but that description of a natural man, R •• 3.10, &c. and it will certify us that he is evil, and only evil. He hath lost all po ••• , and all inclination to good, and is 〈◊〉 with a greadiness after evil. And what 〈◊〉 be said more as to his real state.

2. THAT all actual sin, in fallen Man, 〈◊〉 certainly flow from original sin in him. The first Transgression was an actual sin, or make a complication of many actual sins; this brought upon man the loss of his 〈◊〉 holiness, and the corruption of a dep •• ed nature. And now out of this fountain 〈◊〉 all these bitter streams; so that it is nothing but the eruption of the inbred corrup ••• that man is full of, which hath put him 〈◊〉 de •• that unhappy necessity, that if he 〈◊〉 ••• ing, he must sin, he cannot think 〈◊〉 th •• ght without it, Gen. 6.5.

3. THIS notwithstanding, actual sin 〈◊〉 influence into the rendering Man's state 〈◊〉 sinful. It is true, that which is only 〈◊〉 and nothing else, cannot be more so, 〈◊〉 own nature, but yet it may receive ad ••• or augmentations in its kind; where it comes to pass, that there is more of 〈◊〉 vil. And there are several things in 〈◊〉 this may be instanced, especially,

• (1.) EVERT sin leaves both guilt and a 〈◊〉 hind it. These two are inseparable fro •• sin, as it resers to the first covenant, 〈◊〉 which men are in their natural state.
  • 1. THERE is guilt cleaves to it. Th ••• fers to that sanction of the law which •••• tained in the threatening. Now this •••• ning is out against the sinner for every s • n 〈◊〉 3.4. Hence that, Mat. 5.22. But I say 〈◊〉 you, that whose • ver is angry with his 〈◊〉 without a cause s • all be in danger of the ••• meant: and whose • ver shall say to his br ••• , Racha, shall be in danger of the council 〈◊〉 wh • soever shall say, Thou sool, shall be in 〈◊〉 of hell fire. It is true, though there be the merit of death in every sin of God's children and they can and do confess it, Dan. 9.1 Psal. 130.3. Yet because their persons 〈◊〉 justified, they are not properly guilty; 〈◊〉 every unconverted sinner, contracts new g ••• by every sin that he commits, because the law hath a particular threatening for every act of sin.
  • 2. THERE is also a spot cleaving to it; and this attends upon the sins of the children of God as well as others. For, though gai • being a relation to the law, is removed from them, because they are not under the law but under grace; yet, in as much as this spot is a de • lement, which cleaves unto sin inseparably, it is impossible for a man to meddle with 〈◊〉 without being defiled by it. Sin is therefore called frithiness in Scripture, and resembled by those things that are molt loathsome; and the reason that is given, why God cannot endure it, is His purity, Hal. 1.13. Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil. So many sins then as the man commits, so many dirty spots he pollutes himself withal.
• (2.) HENCE every actual sin sets the man at a farther distance from God. It is a proper and natural effect of sin to make a separation between God and his creature, Isai. 59.2. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. It makes a wall to part them • e from another, and every sin ad • ls a stone to this wall, to make it higher. Me is living in a course of sin. Is called a departing from the living God, and every sin that 〈◊〉 committed is one step taken in this departure; and therefore by multiplied acts, men are sa • d to be gene far atory from Him, Jor. 2.5. Now the way in which this is done, is by strengthening and establishing sin in the heart; it fortifies the malignity, and maketh the man more vile: we are apt to say that acts strengthen the habit, and so it is here; and the more wickedness that men commit, the more wicked they grow. Hence that, 2 Tim. 3.13. Evil men shall wax worse and to rse.
• (3.) FOR this reas • n every actual sin makes the sinner more unreclatmable. There is a strange sort of obdurating is fluence that actual sin hath upon the hearts of men, and therefore the longer that men drive a trade or course of sin, the harder it is to reclaim them. There is emphasis in that, Jer. 13.23. Can the Ethiopian charge his skin, or the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are eccustomed to do evil. It custom be a second nature, then custom in sin, must needs fortify the old nature that is in the sinner; and it is a thing very obrious, that the repeated acts of any sin do make men more in love with it, more shameless in the perpetration of it, more obstinately set to despise all counsels and warnings against it: Old sinners are therefore harder to treat and deal with than young ones.
• (4.) EVERY eduel sin also lays in more wrath for the sinner. And that also shows that his • ate is rendered more si • full by it. New wrath always h • lds a proportion to guilt, it is the wages that are paid the sinner for his work. Rom. 6.23. And it is said that God will render to men according to their deeds, Rom. 2.6. Now it is certain that original sin is equal in all the children of Adam; the slave of one by birth, is not more sinful than of another; so that on this account their wages are alike; and yet there will be found a vast difference in the day of judgment between the penal •• es of these and those: it shall be more tolerable then for some than others, a • d w ••• but because some have a greater •• ilt •• ew • ng to them than others; and that must be, because they have sinned more than they: for this reason we are t • ld what sinners are doing, whiles they live and go on in the ways of sin, in, Rom. 2.5. But after thy hardness and impentent heart, treasared up unto thy ses wrath against the day of wrath, • nd revelattor of the righteous judgment of God. The more actual sin then that men fall into, the more miserable they make themselves by it.

USE I. LET this serve to convince sinners of their a ••••• sian, and their lamentable condition by reason of them. And it concerns young and old. Here is matter of humbling to God's people; but what te • tor doth it offer to the • aregenetate. Here then let me make these remarks,

1. WHATSOEVER you think, speak, or do, is all of it sin. Gen. 6.5. Psal. 52.3. There is an Anomy accompanying of all. You never thought anything, spake anything, did anything, but in it you swerved from the holy and rights us law of God; there is iniquity to be changed upon all; and now think what a world of sin you stand guilty o • . Well might the P • almist make that demand, Psal. 19.12. Who can understand his errors? can you count up all the words, and deeds, that pass in a day? how much less then are you able to enumerate the innumerable thoughts that are incessantly passing through your hearts? what unaccountable sins then have you to answer for?

2. HENCE, Tour lawful actions, yea, and your duties are sins to you. It may be you think, you do not so transgress the letter of the law as some others do, you avoid all forbidden things, and you attend on commanded duties, but remember that you spoil all those; the very things that are in themselves good, and laudable, are yet sin before God; you sin in eating, and drinking, and following your calling, yea in reading, praying, hearing, &c. you do them without grace, without a designing of God's glory, and they are an abomination.

2. AND if you • mit the doing these duties, you sin still. Many will say, I will leave off, because I sin in doing this thing, but y • u do not so get out of the labyrinth, for that is sin 〈◊〉 , and worse than the other; for you are under an obligation actually to serve God, and you break that obligation by your omissions. Hence there is fury, Pear cut thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the saothes that call not on thy name: for they have eaten 〈◊〉 Jacob and devoured him, and •• rsumed him. and have •• ade his babitation desolate, Jer. 10.25.

4. HENCE the longer you live in sin, the more jewful 〈◊〉 you lay in for yourselves. Every day adds to the amazing score; you were children of wrath when you were born, but there is more wrath continually laying 〈◊〉 more you act; remember all these are 〈◊〉 record Jer. 17.1. The sin of Judah is to 〈…〉 , end with the print 〈◊〉 ••• mend. One sin is enough to damn your how deep there w • ll you link, by the weight of such a compa ••• of • i • s as you are heapi • g up • w • at a lamentable trade then are •••• ers during in this world

USE II. LEARN i • 〈…〉 admira •• pat • ence of God I 〈◊〉 • dre • of men. Are they lallan into such a state as that they do nothi • g but sin against G • d 〈◊〉 what a wonder is it that the world •• a d • st •• l, a • d such creatures are suffered to breath in it. There is not the youngest ch • ld that is able to speak, but hath reason to admire at rich mercy that hath spated him, on the account o • his actual si • s; not only for Adam's sin, or original fin, hath he deserved to die, but you have done enough already to dame you a thousand times over. See it, and be wail it.

USE. III. LE ••• •••• ght then drive sr • n • rs space to jers;us Christ. If you know what actual sin is, you cannot but know that you are guilty of it. Well, if there be but one it will undo you except He save you. Have you had but one vain thought, or spoken but one idle word, His blood must expiate it, or you are forever undone! Get then from under the Law by getting into Christ as fast as you can; and the more sins you have committed, be the more persuaded of your need of Him, as a Savior; H • came to take away the sins of His people; see then that you be of that number. Fly from all your sins unto Hi • , and so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

SERMON LXII.

II. HERE we have an account of the second part of the punishment, namely, the misery, under which the Apostasy hath brought Adam and all his posterity. A sinful state is indeed in itself a miserable state; to be carnal and sold under sin is a woeful infelicity; but when we speak of sin and misery, A Tributively, the latter intends the unhappy fruits of sin: as those effects whereof this is the m • ral cause, by which man is become wretched. And these fall under our present consideration. I am not now to prove, that these things are befallen mankind, by reason of the first sin; or to give account of the equity that is in it, that hath been done already, under another head. My present business is to lay open this forlorn state, and give it its true colors, that so we may know what we all are out of Christ; it being a conviction necessary in order to our serious enquiry after salvation by Him.

THIS Answer like the former, is rather a distribution than a definition; directing us to those heads unto which this misery is to be reduced. And here we are to observe two things,

• 1. The condition that man is in from whence those miseries derive.
• 2. The miseries themselves that derive from it.

I. THE condition that man is in, from whence these miseries derive. And this consists in the relation that he stands in unto God, who as lie is the object and author of all the blessel • ss of the creature, so He is the principal agent in all the punishment that is inflected on them for sin: which relation is expressed, 1. P ••• icly, they have lest, &c 2. P • survely, they are under, &c. And needs must their misery be great beyond co • cepti •• , whose state is such as this. To the former of these we may refer the punishment of l • st to the latter the punishment of sense, as Divines express them. I shall begin with the former.

1. THE privative part of this misery is that he hath •• st Communion with God, and 〈◊〉 the •• o belongs the whole punishment of l • s; we may take a brief account of it, in these following particulars.

1. THAT God is the objective happiness of the reasonable creature. Every being that is capable of happiness, must have an object to make it so. God who is absolutely the first Being, is His own object, and consequently His own felicity, the second Being must have its happiness from abroad, and therefore its object must be out of it selt, and everyone is not sufficient, because nothing else will happify, but that which can give complete satisfaction, which no other Bei • g is able to do for the reasonable creature, but God alone. Hence that, Psalm 73.23. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides that. There is nothing else that can, for suitableness, for fullness for duration, answer all the reachings of such a Being; as hath been fully evinced under the first question.

2. THAT hence men's actual felicity must needs derive from Communion with this Object. Active blessedness is properly a resultancy from the closing of the faculty with its object, and deriving from it that which giveth it satisfaction: except there be a participation in it, and the continued influence of it upon the subject, it is not happy. Hence though there is enough in God to make all blessed yet all are not •• ally so, and the reas • n • s not for want of sufficiency in H • m, but because they have not this communion with Him Hence that, Psal 3 • . 〈◊〉 . F • r w • th t •• e 〈…〉 fountain of life 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 g • t 〈◊〉 see light if then, th • y be 〈◊〉 in this light, they cannot see it, or enjoy it. A • d therefore every distance from G • d as a m • sery. Psal. 73.27. For • o, t • ey that are f •• from thee shall perish. This communion is nothing else but God's gracious communication of Himself to the creature, and its living upon it.

3. THAT the ground of t •• s communion, was man's union to God, in the covenant of life. All communion requires an answerable union, on which it is founded. There is an infi • i • e distance and disproportion between God and the creature, in respect of Beings, so that there can be no natural union between them; but God was pleased to take man near to Him in the covenant that He made with him, in which He promised him to be his God, and his portion, if he would take Him as so, and accordingly live upon Him alone. A covenant people, are on this account said to be near unto God, Psal. 148.14. In this covenant way God and man were to have an everlasting friendship and fellowship.

4. HENCE the bond of this union being broken, by man's sin, this c • mmunion was also interrupted and violated. For, as God had engaged Himself to man to be all to him that he could any way want, on condition that he would rest satisfied in Him, and yield obedience to Him, so he threatened to reject and cast him off, in case he did otherwise. These terms were the bond of the covenant, and as long as they abode inviolate, that remained firm; but when once they were gone from, the covenant was now broken, and man fallen under the threatening of it. God and he were fallen out, and could walk together no longer. Amos 3.3. Can two walk together except they be agreed? This puts an end to that glorious fellowship.

5. THE misery arising from this is very great and manifold. That privations, or losses may make the sufferer of them miserable, is not to be denied, in as much as felicity consists in fruition; so, that if we separate him from his object, we thereby cut him off from his actual happiness; and what is misery, if this be not? Now this union being broken, it hence follows.

(1.) THAT man hath lost God's favor. And this one thing is the abstract of all misery. What saith the Psalmist on this account? Psal. 30. 5. In his favor is life. And. 63.3. Thy loving kindness is better than life. What a loss then is sustained by falling out of this? God had a great favor for man at first, and gave eminent testimonies of it, in that he took him so near Himself, entertained him in such a covenant, made such liberal promises to him, not only put the visible creation in subjection to him, but also appointed the glorious Angels themselves to be ministering spirits for him. But now he is put out of this favor, he hath lost it, and as a token of this, G • d turned Adam out of Paradise, where He manifested Himself to him, and guarded the pla • e against him with Cherubims and a flaming Sword.

(2.) HE hath also lost all the benefits, which should have 〈◊〉 from this favor. There were unspeakable kindnesses that He had laid up with Him, to have bestowed upon man, in case he had kept His favor, but by falling out of that, he hath lost them all. And here, in general, he hath lost the claim to all that good which was laid up in the covenant promise. It was life, that was promised, in opposition to the death that was threatened; and that life comprehended in it innumerable and unknown benefits, both for body and soul, for time and eternity; and he might have called them his own, and made a challenge of them as such, upon the credit of that promise. But now he hath no claim at all; the obedience unto which they were connected is gone, and by that means he hath nothing to show for them. God Himself is now no longer his God, though He be his maker; and having lost his God, he must needs loose all that is good: but what his loss hereby is in particular, will fall under the second head; when we come to consider the miseries themselves deriving herefrom.

2. THE positive part of this misery is, that he is under God's wrath and curse. And to this refers all the punishment of sense. We may here consider,

• 1. What we understand by God's wrath and curse?
• 2. That man is become very miserable by falling under them.

1. WHAT we understand by God's wrath and curse?

A. WE may take a short account of them severally.

1. THE wrath of God is His revenging Justice, inclining Him to take vengeance on sinners, according to their deserving. Anger and wrath are ascribed unto God frequently in Scripture, not as if He had any such affections or passions in Him; but because he doth such things in His providence, as among men are the usual effects of such an affection; but they refer to his relative Justice, of which we have formerly had an account. Only let us here call to mind, that this justice exerts itself to men, according to the respect they bear to the rule of it, Rom. 2.6. Who will render to every man according to his deeds. They are supposed to come under either the promise or threatening, and justice is concerned in both. With respect to the former it is called rewarding, to the latter reverging justice. This latter is called His anger and wrath, because He herein makes it appear, how displeasing sin is to Him He verifies the truth or that, Hab. 1.13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look of iniquity. This wrath then is co • trary to His Favor, and c • mes in upon the removal of that; so that it is impossible for a creature to fall out of His Favor, but it must upon it fall under His Displeasure. And it is a ve • y r • ghte • us wrath, it is nothing else but what si •• ers justly des • rve for their sin. 2. Th • s. 1. 〈◊〉 . For, since that sanction of the law a which this was threatened is just, the execution of it must needs be so too.

2. THE Curse of God is properly the sentence whole falls upon man for sin, which binds him • ver to s • ffer acc • rding to the Law. We may here co • sider the curse either as to the matter or s •• m of it.

(1.) AS to the matter of it, it contains und • r • t all the evils that is comprehended in the Threatning. It is summed up in that one word, d • ath, Gen. 2.17. The word used, Gal 2.1 • . signifies a thing that is devoted to all di • eful mischie • s. And the word frequent • y used in the Old Testament is of the same • mport. The curse then, is made up of everything that God hath said He will testify His wrath in, against sinners; (of which we may take a distinct account hereafter;) o • lie here observe, that there are innumerable evils comprehended under it; and therefore it is often expressed in the plural, Curses, & we have an account of a fearful ro • l that was full of them, in Zech •• begin.

(2.) IN respect of the form of it: it is properly the sentence falling upon the man, whereby he is bound over to suffer these evils. It is the condemnation which comes in upon guilt, which man contracted to himself by his sin. What that guilt is, we have been already told; • o • r the difference between that, and the ••• se lies here, Guilt is that which makes the man obnoxious to the law in respect of the threatening, he is by it fallen under that condition; now the Curse is the sentence itself, which comes in immediately upon that Guilt, and is inseparable From it: by guilt the man lies open to the curse, and therefore this presupposeth that; and upon it, it takes hold of him, and dooms him to suffer all that which he hath merited by his sin; he is now devoted, as the malefactor, after the Judge hath past a sentence upon him, is a man dead in law.

2. THAT man is become very miserable by falling under this wrath and curse. Here two things

• (1.) THAT all men are in their natural state under • hese. How they came to be under these, and that righteously, hath heretofore been made evident: that they are certainly so, the Scripture is clear for it, Eph. 2.3. Were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. And hence we have that, Psal. 7.11. God is angry with the wicked every day. And for the curse, Gal. 3.10. For as many as are of the w • rks of the law, are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the 〈◊〉 and them. That God should be angry at sin, a 〈…〉 for it, proceed from His H • liness by w •• ch He is bound for His own gl • ry, and ca ••• t bear with that which sets itself agai • st 〈◊〉 as all sin doth. R • m. 〈◊〉 . • 3. He • ce we have such a declaration of it, Psal. 5.4, 5. For thou are not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with th • e. The foolish shall • not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all the workers of iniquity. That they must needs be under the curse! How, upon their relation to that covenant and becoming transgressors of it; because God engaged Himself to to the sanctions of that covenant, and He is a God of Truth, so that a man can no sooner become a sinner, but that curse takes hold of him, and dooms h • m to suffer all that is contained in it: so that the Apostle makes fallen man's being under the law, and under the curse inseparable, Ga • . 2.10.
• (2.) THAT by their being under these they are very miserable. What else is misery, b •• a suffering of such things, as are afflictive and destructive to the creature? and such certainly are those things that are contained in the curse, and are the effects of God's wrath; as will appear convincingly, when we shall come to rip them up, and lay them open. Here only in general, I shall endeavor to clear it up in the following remarks.
  • 1. THAT God d • th all things like Himself. All God's works of efficiency are designed by Him, to be the displays of His glory; He is in them making Himself known to be God; and that is by the manifestation of His Divine Perfections, so as that the reasonable creature may be led by the things that are seen to discern and adore Him. Rom. 1, 2 • . Which that they may do, it is requi ••• e that He so work, as no other Being doth 〈◊〉 can. Hence is the Psalmist's acknowledgment, Psal. 86.10. For thou art great and •• est wondrous things; thou art God a ••• Herein also Christ evidenced His Deity, wh •• by His works He forced that confession from them, Mat. 14.33. Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
  • 2. THAT hence whatsoever attribute He designs to declare. He wi • l give it its luster. God is made known to us in His back parts; those Perfections which are in Him one and the same God, are variously displayed 〈◊〉 us: accordingly there are some works i • which He designs the more peculiar dicovery of one, • nd in some another of thes • Perfections. Hence that, Rom. 9.22, 23. What if God, willing to show his wrath, and 〈◊〉 make his power known, endured with much la •• suffering the vessels of wrath fir • ed to destru ••• on: And that he might make known the rich • of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he 〈◊〉 • s • re prepared unto glory? Now His infini •• Wisdom contrives everyone of these suita ••• to the purpose, and His mighty hand pe • forms forms them accordingly. And hereupon are those two things ascribed to His whole efficiency, Isai. 28.29. Wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. And this they celebrate him for, Exod. 15.11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!
  • 3. IT must therefore needs be a terrible thing to be under the wrath of this God. The wrath of God is that whereby He is set against the creature, and engaged to do it hurt, and when He once comes to declare Himself to be so, it is enough to fill it with consternation. Hence that, Ezek. 5.8, 9. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee, in the sight of the retires. And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do anymore the like; because of all thine abominations. Josh. 24.20. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then be will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that be hath done you god. And when He is thus set, and gives way to his anger, it is most dreadful; see what He himself saith of it, Deut. 32.41, 42 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine band take b •• d on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them 〈…〉 me. I will make mine arro • s drunk with bled (and my sword shall devour flesh) and that with the blood of the stain, and of the 〈◊〉 from the beginning of revenges upon the ••• y. And what a resentment holy 〈◊〉 have had of it, Psal. 76.7. Thou, even th • art to be feared, and who may stand in thy 〈◊〉 when once thou art angry? Heb. 10.31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Surely nothing less than r •• n can befall those that must meet Him as a God taking vengeance.
  • 4. THE execution of God's wrath consists in the sulf •• ing of the curse upon sinners. So that by reading over the curse, and taking an account of the contents of that, we may know what is like to be the portion of those on whom-His wrath must fall. For, since God's wrath is nothing else but the application of His revenging Justice to the subject 〈◊〉 is fallen under it, it must have an eye to and take its measure from the t ••• of Justice, which is the law with respect to the threatening; in which threatening is contained the whole curse, and it is to be collected from it.
  • 5. THE things contained in the curse are fearful things. There is nothing there but what carries consternation in the aspect of it: it is enough to astonish the creature to read it over. What saith David? Psal. 119.120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am e ••• d of thy judgments. We have a short ••• me containing but some of them, and that such as are the least, Dent. 28 15, &c. And yet who can read them seriously without horror? but there are such as are more terrible on record in the book of God. Nature cannot but relent, and look at them with abhorrence; needs then must it be swallow • ed up of misery, when it is seized on by them.
  • 6. GOD stands firmly obliged by the Curse. Not only must He needs be displeased at fin, because it sets itself against his glory, which His Holiness will not suffer Him to part withal; but he doth by the curse stand bound to the execution according to the tenor of it: for what else is it but a declaration of his holy will, and a passing sentence upon the creature according to that law, which he confirmed to man in a covenant; and having declared it, His truth and immutability stand to ratify it, and he will not go back from his word. This we have asserted in this respect, 1 Sam. 15.29. And also the strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent: for he is not a nan that be should repent. And our Savior Christ hath told us, Mat. 5.18. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth sass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
  • 7. HENCE these that are under God's wrath and curse have Him certainly for their enemy. God loves his friends, and though he may sometimes be angry with them, yet they are not the subjects of his wrath and fury, as all who are under the curse, are; but wicked men are called God's enemies, Psal. 37. 20. And he is always engry with them, Psal. 7.11. And if that be not a misery with a witness, to have the infinite, eternal, almighty; holy and righteous God armed against them to their destruction, what can be reputed so? We are told, that whiles we are in our natural state, we are enemies, Rom. 5.10. And if a man find his enemy, will he not destroy him? And shall not God do so?
  • 8. HENCE to fall into God's bands as an enemy, contains the quintiscence of all misery in it. There is every afflictive evil contained in it; and that in the height and tenor of it; for as the man is, so is his strength; what is He then who is God? And when He comes to meet His foes in His fury, He will not do it as a man? As there is no escaping, for whether should he flee from an Omnipresent God? so there is no enduring. Exek. 22.14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee. Him therefore our Savior gives us warning to be afraid of, Mat. 10.28. Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in bell.

USE. I. LET this be a word of solemn awakening to convince sinners of the present misery that is upon them. It may be, for the present, you are under the patience of God, and the miseries which are the portion of sinners are not fallen, in their full weight, upon you, and you begin to bless yourselves, and say, the bitterness of death is over; but come hither, and think on the things but now represented, and say, whether such as you are be not in a forlorn condition. And it concerns Children as well as others. Know then, that if you are Adam's posterity, and still under his Covenant, as all unconverted ones are, this is your real state; there is an entire breach between God & you, You have no fellowship with Him, you are far from Him, at an everlasting distance; you are the subjects of his wrath, and stand just in the way of the floods of his indignation; you are the very butts set up for Him to spend his arrows upon 〈◊〉 you are cursed creatures, devoted to direful destruction, and must needs therefore be in danger of it every moment; and is this a condition to be quiet and contented in? can you live a night longer thus? can you go up and down Jocund and merry for all this, as if you ailed nothing? surely madness must be in your hearts, Hence,

USE. II. LET this consideration make Christ precious to you, and drive you apace to Him. Bless God that you hear, that there is a city of refuge, and that you are invited to repair to it from the avenger of blood: that there is a Savior that can reconcile you to God, and restore you to communion with him, and remove you from under his wrath and curse, and bids you to come unto him, that he may do it for you. Let the terror of the Lord then persuade you; be afraid of his wrath and vengeance, and let that fear give wings unto you, that you may, with present speed, betake yourselves to his wings for refuge, left the curse should overtake you, and fall in its weight upon you, and then there will be no remedy.

SERMON LXIII.

II. IT now follows that we take a view more particularly of those miseries, that arise from this condition. And what is he not to expect, who is fallen out of God's favor, and fellowship, and subjected to his wrath and curse? These are variously distributed by Divines: out Catechism refers it to three heads; unto one of which all that can be thought of may be reduced: and I shall take them up in order.

1. THET are made liable to all miseries in this life. Here are two things.

• 1. Their obnoxionsness to these miseries.
• 2. The miseries themselves.

I. AS to their obnoxiousness to these miseties; This refers to all three heads, and may be here spoken to, once for all. This Hows immediately from that guilt, of which we before had an account, under which all mankind are fallen, by virtue whereof they are thus exposed. And this indeed is a very miserable condition in itself; and yet withal it affords some relief to those unto whom the law is delivered in the hands of a Mediator. Give me leave then a little to lay it open in the following conclusions.

1. THAT all these miseries are comprehend in the curse of the law. That there we sanctions annexed to the command in the sin covenant, contained in the promise and th • threatening, we have already observed. No • the curse is wrapped up in the threatening, an • co-extensive with it, having for the matt •• of it, all the evil that is so threatened. This 〈◊〉 summad up in that one word, Death, (Gen. 2.27. • but the word grasps in it all the sorrowful evil that can be named; any grievous calamity i • therefore in Scripture so called. Exod. 10.17. •• 2 Cor. 11.23. Whatsoever sorrows the creature is capable of undergoing, in Soul or Body come within the compass of this curse.

2. THAT man's g • th hath bound him ever 〈◊〉 sufier this curse. Man by making himself guilty pulls all this upon his own head; the sentence which was generally & conditionally declared in the covenant, now particularly and expressly takes hold of him: and he th •• stands condemned by the law; i. e. the o •• damnation of it belongs to him because, at he is under the law, so be is come within the teach of this sanction of it, or he is one of those which that hath said, shall die: and the guilt that lies upon him, is as a c •••• that setters and holds him fast to it, and he cannot wring himself out of it. Gal. 3.2 • The Scripture bath concluded all under 〈◊〉 Concluded, a meraphor from such as are cl ••• shut up in a dungeon.

3. THAT God's Justice stands engaged to the execution of this curse upon the guilty s ••• . Relative Justice, to which we must have respect in the transactions between God and 〈◊〉 according to the first covenant, is, God en •••• to proceed according to the tenor of the l •• , as it was fixed between him and his crea ••• . The righteousness therefore of that law in 〈◊〉 it's parts, being supposed, (& it must be acknowledged,) the righteousness of God appe •••• his standing by it, and treating men according to it: so that man having unhappily brought himself under the threatening, God's revenging Justice is now set against him, to bring upon him the curse in its full weight. Hence 〈◊〉 , ( Rom. 2.6.) He hath stated this rule of proceeding, and he cannot go back.

4. GOD useth at holy arbitriment in executing this curse upon sinners. Not that he doth any way baulk or infringe his own Justice, as • i •• appear in the consideration of it; but to display his infinite Wisdom, and sper ••• Sovereignty in his procedure in this reg •• d, and because sinners are apt to misinterp •• and abuse this to the hardening of their hears against God, let us take a more distinct 〈◊〉 of it, in the following remarks.

(1.) THERE are some of these miseries 〈◊〉 do presently fall upon every sinner, and there 〈◊〉 none that escape them. The whole world 〈◊〉 mankind, and every individual, do 〈◊〉 something more or less of the curse, and th •• both in Bodies and Souls, their outward and inward man. Man and miserable are become terms convertible, and there is none of the unhappy race, but have cause to bewail their own infelicity. Hence we have such expressions as those, Job. 5.6, 7. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards. 14.1. Man that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. Hence the word Enoch, which signifies for sorrowful, is used as an appellative for man. Psal. 〈◊〉 . ult. Man is therefore said to come into the world •• ath vanity, Eccl. 6.4.

(2.) THERE is no sinner dying in his sins, but shall undergo the consummation of all these miseries. Whatsoever his lot may in this life, by God's holy Providence, fall out to be, yet If he live and die under the law, and be not delivered from the sentence of it, the whole curse will at length at once fall upon him in its weight, and sink him down into irrecoverable destruction; in which destruction all miseries are eminently contained; this is the doom which is past upon all ungodly men, however they may live in this world. Psal. 49.9, 17.

(3.) THERE is a great variety in God's ins ••• ing these miseries upon sinners in this world. He asserts his liberty in this affair more ways than one: some feel more of the curse for the present than others do; there are some that have abundant health, peace, prosperity, ease, delight: others who encounter manifold troubles, sickness, poverty, molestation, and inward vexations. Again, some enjoy a longer, others a shorter time of the moderation of the curse; some are cut off early, others live a great while in prosperity. Yea, and there are various degrees in which afflictions of the some kind are measured to some and to others, at this or that time. Job. 21.23, &c. And in these things God acteth his own pleasure.

(4.) THERE are two Attributes which God purposeth the manifestation of to sinners; and this notwithstanding the miseries which they are doomed to in the curse.

• 1. THERE is his Mercy, which he intends to ••• e appear in common to the world. Hence his mercy is said to be over all his works. Now mercy hath always a respect to such as are miserable, as the subject it falls upon, and it expresseth itself in moderating of those miseries, so as that they do not fall upon them to the uttermost, and this is designed for sinners in this life: From whence it comes to pass.

  (1.) THAT he doth not bring the whole curse in its efficacy upon them at once. His hand of compassion holds back his hand of vengeance; and though they feel some of the scalding drops of his anger at present, yet they do not suffer all his fury. They have great reason to make that confession, Psal. 103.10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. It is but a little part, not only of the whole misery which they are doomed to, but of the present sorrows which belong to them, that they are under the impression of.

  (2.) THAT he bestows upon them in his beauty, a great many of the favors which they had forfeited. Man hath by his fall forfeited all good things; hath not only lost his title to eternal felicity, but also to every comfort of this life, and God owes 〈◊〉 not a draught of water, or a crust of bread; and by the curse he is condemned to lose them all: but God doth not at present strain this to the height, but allows him a great many of these blessings, and possibly in a great plenty; He gives him rain from heaven, &c. He spreads his table for him, and the waters of an overflowing cup are wrung out to him; he makes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall upon him; and it may be, he lives in such fullness as if there had been no such forfeiture made. We have an account of such as these, though ungodly, Job 21. Psal. 73. and we have that remark, ver. 12. Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches.

  (3.) HE lays crestraint upon those miseries which they do undergo. Though they do meet with and suffer these and those calamities, and have experience of some of the stings of the curse, yet they are greatly moderated; when he doth give a vent to his anger, yet he doth not let it all out; the miseries threatened are boundless, but he sets bounds to theirs, there is a great deal of the mixture of mercy in their afflictions; every sickness that comes upon them, is not deadly; though they are reduced to poverty, yet they are not starved; though they are in pain, yet it is tolerable; so that in his very judgments he remembers mercy for them.

  (4.) AND he oftentimes succors them in their miseries, and brings them out of them. There are many temporal salvations that he affords to them. They, when they are groaning under their oppressions, cry, and he so far hears them, as to send them relief, and they are freed again. This the Psalmist observes in many kinds of distresses, and that is the burden of the song, Psal. 107.6. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distress. And the vilest sinners upon the earth, have such experiences as these, if they would observe and improve them. Now all this is the common mercy of God, which is no obstruction to the due execution of justice, in the due season of it, nor gives to sinners any the least security against it.

• 2. THERE is his special saving grace, which he purposeth to extend to some. This is not, as the other, a common favor; but it is intended for some, who yet are of the same number, and are fallen under the same condemnation with others; but yet God hath in his good will to them, ordained them to everlasting life; but in their natural state they are equally children of wrath with the rest, Eph. 2.3. Now with regard to these let us observe,

  (1.) THAT God hath executed the curse on His own Son standing in their room. As they stood devoted to all miseries, by the sentence of the law, and justice stood engaged to that sentence, so was the Son of God surrogated in their place, to bear the wrath of God, instead of them, that so they might be saved, and yet justice have its triumph. For this reason is he said to be made sin for us, 2 Cor 5.21. To have all our iniquities laid upon him. Isal. 53.6. To be made a curse for us, Gal. 3.13. For the case stood so, that we must needs have suffered in person, except some surety interposed, and was accepted for us.

  (2.) THAT now He useth the miseries which they are under by the curse, to drive them to Christ. The curse lies on these as well others, whiles they are unregenerate, and all the evils they suffer are from it; but by these the Spirit of God discovers to them their woeful misery, and together with it reveals the remedy, so that they are made serviceable to-show them their absolute need of a Savior, and put them upon seeking after him, which they would not be willing to do, if they felt not their misery.

  (3.) THAT He takes out the curse from the miseries they meet with, after they are in Christ, and sanctifies them for their benefit. There are a great many miseries which the children of God undergo in this life, during their pilgrimage in an evil world, and some of them are plagued every day, and chastened every morning; but though these are for the matter, the same with those that wicked men meet with, and for degree are oftentimes more intense, yet the quality or form of them is altogether altered: for, though the bitterness be not, yet the poison is wholly taken out of them; they are crosses still, and hard to bear, but they are not curses: they are death, but the sting is taken out, 1 Cor. 15.55, 56. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law. And besides this, they are made serviceable to their best advantage, there is now a blessing in them, and their operation is profitable. Rom. 8.28. And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

  (4,) AND He wholly cuts off the entail of everlasting misery from them. All the miseries they are like to meet with are whiles they are in the body; it is but this season, 1 Pet. 1.6. They were doomed to the other as well as these; but though they may be exercised with the sorrows of the first, they shall never be hurt by the second death. They were once in great danger of this, but now the danger is past, and their soul is brought out of prison and enlarged: for why, the law sentence is removed, there is no condemnation abides them, Rom. 8.1. And this is a privilege which some have by grace obtained. To proceed,

5. BUT every child of fallen Adam, is in his natural estate continually liable to all these miseries. Though those who are in a state of grace are exempted yet there are no other but lie open to the invasion and oppression of the curse in all the parts of it. It is true, there are some among these, for whom God hath a secret purpose of good, but for the present they also are open, their present condition is obnoxious; nor are all the mercies which others enjoy, any security to them. And this liability of theirs may be taken notice of in these particulars.

1. ALL these miseries are their portion. This is the unhappy legacy which their first father hath left them; it is that which he brought into the world, and it hath past over to all his posterity, Rom. 5.12. These are the recompense which was laid in, in the first covenant for sinners, it was the wages appointed for sin, Rom. 6.23. It therefore belongs to them all; the holy God once said it, and He will never go back from his word, that the soul which sins shall die; it is that which God owes the sinner, and he will pay it.

2. THEY are already condemned to these miseries. It is true, there is a farther condemnation abides them in the great Day. But for the present they are under a sentence of condemnation; the law hath condemned them, in declaring against all such as they are; hence that, John 3.18. But he that believeth not is condemned already. Their own consciences have also condemned them, whether they hearken to them or no, yet there are these records in them, which will one day be produced, and they be silenced, Rom, 1. ult. And the Apostle argues thus, 1 John 3.20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater then our heart, and knoweth all things. It is certain, that the state of every unregenerate man is a state of condemnation; and therefore to the justification of a sinner, there is required the absolving him from it, which is called, a passing from death to life.

3. HENCE there is no one misery but he is every moment in danger of. All are, as we observed, included in the sentence which is past upon the sinner; now we know that when once a person stands condemned, he is dead in law, and it is at the Judges pleasure when to sign the warrant for his execution; so that though he is now in health and life, as sound as any; other, yet he may be fetched away, and turned out of the world before an hour to an end; and so it may be with the sinner, though at present nothing seems to all him. Hence that, Job. 20, 22, 23. In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cost the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

4. HE hath therefore ground of continual expectation of these miseries. And this is a fearful thing. Though he should escape them, yet hath he no security of it, but all reason to be looking out for them; as the condemned prisoner is afraid of every noise he hears, lest the messenger of death is coming for him. We read of some, Heb. 2.15. Who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage. And truly this would be the case of everyone of Adam's posterity, were they not in a deep legarthy of carnal security; every moment of their lives they have cause to think their lait; every Judgment they see or hear of, they have reason to look for it to fall upon them 〈◊〉 they may see the sword of vengeance printed against them, which way soever they turn themselves.

5. AND there is but one only way for them to escape the perfection of misery. It is God's rich mercy that there is such a way, and that it is heard of, viz. by Jesus Christ; and believing in him: but there is no other, Act. 4.12. And it men fail of this, though they should escape many parts of the inchoated miseries in this life, which are due to them, yet this compriseth them all, and in suffering of this, they suffer at once. And there are two things which will discover how liable they are for all this.

1. THAT all are not acquainted with this one way. It is a solemn word of the Apostles, 2 Cor. 4.3. But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. They that know not Christ, are not profited by him: they that never heard of him, never believed in him, and consequently cannot be saved by him. And yet this is the forlorn state of many Nations in the world, to whom God hath not vouchsafed to send the Gospel, who lie in ignorance, enveloped in darkess: and needs must all these be under the efficacy of the curse, and lie hopelesly open to the impressions of it, having no City of refuge to fly into.

2. THAT all to whom this way is declared, do not make use of it. Where the Gospel of Salvation is sent, and men told how they may escape the wrath and curse of God, there are multitudes that regard it not; who either will not be persuaded to believe themselves to be in such danger, or entertain prejudices at the way of their being recovered our of it, and accordingly they live in the neglect of complying with the terms on which they might obtain it, and so remain in their sins, and thereby go every day in danger of eternal perdition.

USE. AND let this be an awakening call to everyone, Young and Old, to make haste and get under the wings of Christ. See your danger, and let that rouse you to seek after the remedy. Let every Christless Soul come hither to see his woeful danger, and be awakened by it, to fly with speed to the refuge that is set before us.

YOU Children, do you think of this; you are children of wrath, and all miseries are hanging over your heads, and ready every moment to fall upon you; nor do you know but that this night the curse may seize upon you, and drag you down to everlasting destruction. Believe it, you cannot enjoy one hours safety out of Christ.

YOU Young Men, who are in your health, and strength, and vigor, and please yourselves in your vanities, and say tomorrow shall be as this day; remember, you are condemned cainffs, you stand continually upon the very brink of m • tchief; there is wrath out against you and every misery belongs unto you, and may fall upon you suddenly while you are crying peace to yourselves.

YOU Old Sinners, that have hitherto been daring of the most High, and tiring out his patience with your impenitency, come hither and see what a precipice you have stood upon all this while; wonder at the forbearance of God, that hath held back revenge thus long, and be afraid of tempting it any longer. Know, that there is but an hairs-breadth between you and all mischiefs; and let it fright you in your present condition, and cause you to make haste and fly for your lives. Bless God that he hath provided a ransom and relief for such as you and that he hath pleased to reveal it to you in the Gospel: and remember, that if for all this you neglect to accept of the offer, and comply with the terms on which it is to be had, if you delay and procrastinate, the Judgments writter may fall upon you unexpectedly, and then you are miserable beyond any remedy. See then your darger, and upon what strong grounds it is built, even the wrath and curse of God, and his righteous revenging justice, which will as certainly take place on you, if you lie in its way as you have a being. Give then no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eye-lids, till you are gotten to the rock of Ages, and secured under the wings of a Savior.

SERMON LXIV.

II. IT follows to consider the Miseries themselves, which they are thus liable to; and they are ranked under three heads, the first whereof we are upon, viz.

1. THE miseries of this life. There are two ages in which everyone is concerned, Time, and Eternity; and by man's fall, death is become man's passage from the one to the other: now in each of these there are miseries contained, which call for a several distinct observation. There are the inchoations of all miseries in this world, after which death comes, and passeth sinners over to the consummation of them in another. And these are all contained in the curse which is fallen upon man; and that one word, Death, engrosseth them all, and there is something of death in every misery. Man begins to die as soon as he begins to live, and he goes on till he is swallowed up of death. His miseries begin here, and are completed hereafter. Hence we have that expression of our Savior, Mat. 24.8. All these are the beginning of sorrows. And so some understand the import of that expression. Gen 2.1 • . Dying thou shalt die. q. d. Thou shalt be always dying, dying, till thou ar • perfectly dead. So that the miseries of this life differ not from those that follow, so much for kind, as degree.

THE miseries then of this life, are All these evils which befall the man from his c • nces ••• to his death. Man hath a se •• t life to run over in this world, but it is a troublesome 〈◊〉 . Joh 14.1. Man that is • er • of a women, is of 〈◊〉 days, and full of trouble. It is true, mercy moderates these troubles, to some more, 〈◊〉 others less; but as everyone is liable to all, so there is none but hath a share in them. And hitherto belongs everything that is affective to the creature: and that we may take a more distinct view of these things, they may be ranked under two heads.

THE miseries undergone in this life are either corporal or spiritual. These are the two kinds of misery that sinful man is punished withal. The ground of this distribution is, from the two effential or constituting parts of man, viz. Soul and Body, as both of these do part c • pate in fin, so are they both exposed unto punishment: and as they are vastly different in nature, so are the penalties belonging to each diversityed, their miseries being suited to their capacities. Soul and Body make one person, and fin is personal, committed by the Soul as the principal, with the Body as its organ or instrument. The person therefore suffers in both. These miseries are uncountable. Hence that, Psal. 40.12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about. But we may reduce them to some general heads.

Here then,

I. CORPORAL Miseries are all th • se Miseries which befall the Body in this Life. They are such as nextly harm the outward man. Whatsoever he meets with which is molestful or uncomfortable to him, with respect to his temporary concerns, belongs to this head. Temporal Judgments are therefore called, Death, Exed. 10.17. Not only because they help forward the death of the body, but also in that they abate of its comfort and delight, which is the life of its life.

THESE evils meet the man in the womb before he is born, and they follow him to his grave; and every affliction gives a chop at the tree of the life of the outward man, till at last it falls, and he dies.

THESE Miseries are either privative, or positive. The one belongs to the punishment of loss, the other to that of sense: for in both of these ways the man is capable of being made miserable. Man is a dependent creature, the withdrawing of that on which he depends makes him miserable; and he is a sensible creature, and it must be a misery to be under the feeling of things hurtful to him.

(1.) THE privative misery is, in his being deprived of the Good things of this Life. There are a great many things go in to make the outward life comfortable. Man was at first privileged with them all; but by sin he hath forfeited them, and God pur • sheth him by withholding them from him. And he •• whatsoever he wants of what man in i •• cency enjoyed, belongs hither: and this loss either refers to the state of the body itself or the supplies of comfort which it had from abroad.

1. IN resped of the state of the Body in se •• . Here is a miserable loss that man hath si • t •• ned, and that may be reduced to two paticulars.

• 1. THE loss of his heath and •• vocity. M •• was made at first of a very hall constitution the cross of his body was so curioully atte • pered, that there was not the least indisp • tion in it, and by reason of this, he was exceeding vigorous and lively; he was made su •• to immercality: and hence there was nothing in him tending towards a dissolation: 〈◊〉 now his health is left, and from the very reception he is distempered and unhealthy, 〈◊〉 so Fable to all diseases; by which men • there is an heaviness and dullness come upon him. Now this privation, both is a 〈◊〉 in itself, and a foundation for many more? •• sitive ones; by this loss, the bond of likes weakened, 1 Cor. 11.30. Mary are weak are sickly among you, and many sleep.
• 2. THE less of his beauty and majesty. M •• body in the Creation was a stately, comely majestic thing; the other creatates had 〈◊〉 awe of it upon them; not was there anything shameful in them. Gen. 2.25. But 〈◊〉 no sooner sinned but he became a shame 〈◊〉 himself, Chap. 3.7. Man's beauty is bla ••• his visage is marred; and besides that whom is befallen all without exception, there are great deformities which some are born w •• all, disproportion in the parts, making an a • merry in the whole, besides many mon ••• deficiencies or redundancies, which either 〈◊〉 fit the body for it's service, or expose it 〈◊〉 contempt.

2. RESPECTING these supplies of 〈◊〉 that it hath from abroad. Here also man is 〈◊〉 a miserable loss; and that many ways; the more principal are such as these.

1. HE hath lost that Government which 〈◊〉 be had over the creatures. There was su ••• dominion given him, Gen. 1.28. And they paid him their homage, when they cannot him to be named by him: and though God continues in them generally a fear of 〈◊〉 yet the natural respect they bear to him 〈◊〉 gone; and they have drawn their necks 〈◊〉 of the yoke, and they are not spontane •••• obedient to him; yea there is in many 〈◊〉 them a rooted malignity, making them 〈◊〉 hate him; and in all of them a reluctacy 〈◊〉 gainst serving him, and they are with di ••• ty broken, and brought to it; their ser ••• being now a real bondage, Rom. 8.20, 21.

2. HE hath lost those pleasures of his 〈◊〉 which he was at the first possessed of. When God had made man, He placed him in a gander planted for him with His own hand, when all suitable delights were provided him: and it was an emblem of that delectable life which Man should have led in that world. It was called •• en, which fig • ines, pleasure, jacu • • ity, delectableness, the • ivers of it, were rivers of pleasures, for to t • em the Psalmist alludes, Psal. 36.8. Th •• s ••• make them drink of the river of thy p • as •• es. Hi • life should have been every way easy and comfortable to E • m, but it is now become otherwise; he is ta •• d out of paradise into the wide world, and this is a misery: for life is truly life no t ••• er than it is delectable.

3. HE hath •• st the pr •••• dge of the earth's ••• th • y. It was made for Man, and exceeding fruitful of all that was requisite for the s • pp •• t and comfort of his life; it readily brought forth its fruits for him; but now it is •• der a curse for his sake, and is made barren of good fruits, and brings them forth sc ••• ily, and not without a kind of force. Gen. 3.17, 18. Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy •• e. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring f • r •• to thee: and thou shall cat the both of the 〈◊〉 . It readily brings f • rth things that are ••• ions and hurtful, but difficultly those that are useful and beneficial.

4. HE hath l • st the virtue of these things for the preservation of his health and vigor. It is •• re than probable that the things themselves are not of that virtue which they had at the first; but it is certain, that man hath not that benefit by them which he should have had, they are the media of the continuation of that athletick constitution of his, 〈◊〉 now there is but a fain • support they af •••• d him, and norwithstanding all, his life goes to decay when he bath made the best of them; the stay and staff in them is greatly •• p • ired, Isai. 3. begin.

(2.) THE positive misery is, in his being subjected to all those evils which destroy the comfort of his life, and have a tendency to the taking of i • ••• y. They make it troublesome whiles it l •• ts, and cut it short too of its continuance; and here is an iliad of miseries to be taken notice of, which cannot be enumerated; a few may here be reflected on: and these also refer to the same heads with the former, viz.

1. TO the state of the body 〈◊〉 self. And there are three things that more eminently refer hither.

• 1. HIS body is become a seat of all manner • f diseases and maladies. His health is gone, and all manner of diseases are ready to prey upon him these belong to the curse, Deut. 28, 59, • 0, 61. And, 26.31. There is a disposition come into his body, that exposeth him to take the infection of every disease that is Epidemical; all the sores, and pains, all the chronick and acute distempers which any are vis • ed withal, belong to this; these make the •• as life to hang in doubt before him, take away the comfort of all his comforts from hi • , and present him with the terrors and fears of death itself: and though the curse in • ence other creatures in this respect, yet there is none that lies open to the one half of those ma •• dies which man doth: many of which are extr • mly tormenting, and all are pining and wasting unto him.
• 2. HE 〈◊〉 exp • sed to weariness in his labor. Man was made for business; he would have had an employment, if he had never finned, Gen. 2.15. But it would have been a recreation and delight, without any weariness at all, by reason of his great vivacity and agility: but now his work tires him, his spirits spend, and he grows faint, so that his business is a burden to him, and a little matter puts him out of breath, and his body to pain: and this attends all his affairs, Eccl. 1.8. All things are full of labor.
• 3. HIS bodily wants, and therewith his labor, are greetly increased. Man needs more f • r his life's support and comfort now, than h • did in the state of innocence; and there needs more labor to obtain it; man now needs not only for food but for clothing too, as to defend him from the injuries of the seasons, so to cover his nakedness, and hide his shame; and man is now in need not only of food, but physic too, to remedy the maladies which are often se • zing of him, that so a dying life may be a while shored up: the curse also that is on the earth makes it harder to obtain this supply, and costs him the more pains, so that there is no end of his toil and travel. Eccl. 2.23. For all his days are sorrows, and his travel grief: yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

2. TO things abroad, or without him. And here miseries come crowding in upon him from every quarter. I shall endeavor to sum up the principal of these under a few heads.

• 1. THE elements; and the elementary bodies are noxious to him, and do him h • r • . The whole creation indeed is armed against him, in the quarrel of their Creator; the sun, moon and stars in their constellations, which were made to give him light an • •• mfortable seasons, do now smite him wi ••• •• ir malignant influences, which produce many afflictions for him. We read, Judge. 5.20: They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses sought against Siser • . That therefore is one blessing promised in the new covenant, Psal. 121.6. The sun shall not smite thee by day; nor the moon by night. Intimating, that finful man is exposed to these. The air is filled with pestilential vapors, by which it infects and poisons them, with contagious diseases, which they suck in with their breath. The waters many times break in upon them, and sweep them away with violence, and destroy their substance. The earth also where they tread sometimes gives way under them, and by amazing ruptures opens its mouth and devours them; and carries, Men, Towns, Cities into its bowels, and closeth upon them.
• 2. THE brute creatures rise up in rebellion against him, and do him mischief. How often doth God threaten sinners in the Scripture, with turning beasts of prey upon them, and that not only metaphorically, but literally; God sent Lions among them, 2 King. 17.25. bears on the mocking children, Chap. 2.24. And there is a particular enmity in all Snakes, and venomous Serpents against man; which lie lurking in a readiness to do him a mischief; yea the very beasts which man keeps for his own use, oftentimes do him harm.
• 3. THERE are crosses and disappointments upon all men's labors. Not only do they get their livelihood with a world of toil; but when they have done all, it comes to nothing, but is blasted, and ends in frustration; which joins vanity and vexation together. We lead, Hab. 2.13. Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts, that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity. Sometimes there is a secret curse upon men's labors, they are croft in all their designs, and they know not how it comes to pass; there is a moth that eats out all, without any noise; at other times there are more open and observable crosses that befall men, and there is an hand out against them in everything they undertake, and there are many ways in which God wafteth their substance; by insects, unseasonable rain or drought, tempests, fires, &c. and by these means they are reduced to poverty and distress, yea, pined away with famine and scarcity. This therefore is one of God's great plagues which he punisheth them with in this world.
• 4. HE is exposed to reproach and contempt. Credit and esteem among men is an outward blessing, and man should have always enjoyed it in his integrity; but sin having put him out of God's favor, hath also laid him open to men's scorn, to he despised of everyone. Hence that threatening. 1 Sam. 2.30. They that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed. And by this means they lie open to all manner of abuses, both of tongue and hand, yea, the very abjects make a may-game of them, and they serve for sport to the vilest of men.
• 5. MANKIND are also set at variance one with another. Man was made a sociable creature; love and friendship were the bond of this society, and had he kept his innocence, there had never been animosities or contentions between them: but now men are turned into Wolves and Bears one to another. God hath sown a perverse spirit among them, and they are always ready to quarrel, and take one another by the throat; and these contentions are either private between neighbors, always vexing each other, with wranglings, secret underminings, injurious dealings, lawsuits, which makes their life a continual vexation or public between Province and Province, between Kingdom and Kingdom, one Nation and another; and hence, wars, tumults, depredations, depopulations, wasting by fire and sword, miserable oppression, captivity and slavery; yea, all manner of distraction and distress. 2 Chron. 15.5, 6. Now all these things are the moral effects of sin; God saith of them, as he did to Judah, Jer. 2.17. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou bast forsaken the Lord thy God. They are contained in the threatening; and whenever we meet with them, they point as hither, and are to bring fin to remembrance; they derive from the curse, and are the genuine fruits of it.

Q. IF it should here be inquired, whence 〈◊〉 it then that the children of God meet with thest evils as well as others, as we have holy 〈◊〉 often complaining in Scripture? and yet they are delivered from the curse of the law, and are under the blessing of the new Covenant.

A. IT may be answered, that though the curse itself be taken out, yet God sees meet to exercise his children with such things 〈◊〉 a threefold account.

1. TO put them in mind what once they were. God would have them to remember it, that so they may the more admire at His free grace which hath delivered them. P ••• would have his Ephesians look back, Eph. 2.2, 3. And that they may have a remembrance of it, they feel some of those things which they had deserved for sin; and this is part of the meaning of that in, Rom. 8.10. The body is dead because of sin.

2. THERE is a great deal of sin yet in God's children; and God useth these to help is purge it away. The curse had made poison of all these afflictions; but that being removed from them, and a blessing put into them, they now become medicinal, and though they art grievous, yet profitable; this therefore is the encouragement which God gives his people under them, Isai. 27.9. By this therefore 〈◊〉 the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is 〈◊〉 the fruit to take away his sin. Deut. 8.15. H • b 12.11. Now no chastening for the present st •• eth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, unto them which are exercised thereby. And therefore the Psalmist could d ••• up that plump conclusion, Psal. 94.12. Bless •• is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, 〈◊〉 te • chest him out of thy law. The remains of concupiscence in us are to be mortified, and God makes these serviceable to the morr •• cation of them; he thus makes fin an evil and bitter thing to them.

3. THEY sometimes fall into scandalous sins, and God useth these as rods to correct them withal. It is therefore an article in the new Covenant on the supposal of such a thing. Psal. 89.30, 31, 32. If his children forsake my l •• , and walk not in my judgments, If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments: Th •• will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. And this is a fruit of His love, and not of His wrath, Heb. 12.6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 〈◊〉 scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Hence the children of God may have other res • entments of these things than ungodly men, and though the things are for the matter the same, yet both the design and operation o • them is contrary: nor are they less curses to natural men, because they are turned into blessings to the regenerate.

USE I. LEARN we hence to Justify God and Condemn ourselves, in all the sorrows and miseries of this life. This is enough to silence us forever, from grumbling and complaining against God, under the worst of evils that assault us. Lam. 3.39. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sias? Remember then always, that God is the author of all these afflictions, and fin is the procuring cause of them, who or whatsoever the instrument may be: they are therefore righteous Judgments, and let us ever confess them to be so. Remember, these are but part of that death which is the wages of sin. Rom. 6.23. And shall God be charged for unjust in paying you your wages? when you feel the smart of these sorrows, look upon fin, ponder on the deserts of it, see what an horrid thing it is, how infinitely injurious to the great God, and then say, that God hath wronged you, if you can: when you fall into any mischiefs, remember it is by your iniquity. Hos. 14.1. It is the sin you are guilty of that thus pursues you.

USE II. LET us hence see and acknowledge God, in all the moderation which its useth, in inflicting of these miseries upon in. Remember, they are all of them contained in the curse, and due to be executed on us, from the first moment that we began to be sinners; how much mercy then do sinners enjoy in the midst of all the sorrows they encounter? Sinners, it is a wonder of mercy, that you enjoy any comfort of life: that you have any measures of health and strength, and are not consumed by constant pining sicknesses, or incessant torturing pains; that you have any of the good things of God to support you, food and raiment; that you enjoy any credit, liberty, prosperity in your affairs, that you are not made a terror to yourselves, and all that are about you: that you have any friends, &c. God owes you none of these favors, but the contrary miseries. Let this thought humble us, and make us vile in our own eyes for our sin; and encourage sinners to adventure to seek peace and pardon of God through Christ.

SERMON LXV.

II. SPIRITUAL Miseries are all those evils to which the Soul is subjected in this life. They are such as the inward man is nextly harmed by; and though this be least regarded by sinful man, by reason of that stupidity which he labors of, yet it is indeed the most awful: all the outward evils we before took notice of, are little in comparison of it: spiritual death is the most amazing death.

For,

• 1. THE Soul is the most excellent part in Man, and consequently the misery which befalls it must be the sorer. If a man had a thousand bodies he had better lose them all, than one soul. This was fitted for communion with God, and is the immediate subject of blessedness; the body shares in these by participation: one soul is of more worth than a world, and the loss of it cannot be compensated by the gain of that. Mat. 16.26. For what is a man profited, if be gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
• 2. THE soul is of large and vast capacities. It's endowments were many and great, and unspeakably more than those of the body; and for that reason is capable of losing more, and suffering more than that. God endowed the soul with more than he did the body, it had therefore more to lose, and the miseries of which it is capable are more terrible. Hence we have that aggravation, Jer. 4.10. The second reacheth unto the soul.
• 3. A man may undergo all bodily miseries and yet be happy. We observed before, that God's Children are often encountered with them in this Life; and yet are beloved of God, and heirs of the Kingdom. Whereas he that is under the efficacy and power of these spiritual miseries, is miserable indeed, and all the enjoyments of outward favors, cannot make him happy.

THESE miseries also are either privative or positive. The soul is not like the body, subject to a natural Death. It was made immortal, and is capable of no other dissolution, but annihilation, which shall never be. It's death therefore consists in the infelicities that come upon it. These have their inchoations in this life, and their consummation after death. And they come under these two heads.

1. THE privative miseries of the soul are contained in the loss of all those things wherein it's happiness did consist. Privative misery is nothing else but a privation of felicity. When therefore we have considered wherein the happiness of the soul doth stand, and seen it under the loss of all this, we have a right discovery of this part of it's infelicity. And the things which are most remarkable here, are such as these.

(1.) THE soul is deprived of the image of God, and thereby utterly incapable of serving Him. Man was made for God's service, this was his last end, and his formal happiness consisted in it. For the creature can only attain it's felicity, in reaching it's last end: Hence that, Isai. 56.2. It is true, the whole man was appointed for this service, but the soul as the principal, and the body as the instrument. This image was the spiritual life of the soul, it was that which enabled it to it's service; and therefore in the loss of it, it is become dead, Eph. 2.1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. It was a fearful word that he spake, Josh. 24.10. Ye 〈◊〉 serve the Lord: for be as an holy God: be as a scabies God. We formerly observed that this loss was fallen upon mankind as a punishment; and the soul is undone by it: and labors under miserable vanity. It is become useless for the end it was made for, being fallen short of the glory of God: it cannot please God, and what then doth it live for? he hath now left him no knowledge how to do it, no will or inclination to it, not any strength, no not so much as desire to glorify God.

(2.) THE sial b • th l • st all the joy or comfort of the promised •• se. The life of life is the d • light which we have in it, and if that be separated, it is but a living death. Now the only spiritual comfort of man was, that God had promised him life in the covenant, Ren: 10.5. The man which dish these things, shall live by them. By virtue of this he was in the way to, and had a fair prospect of happiness. But now the promise is violated, and all his cla • m lost. His fin hath cut him off from it, and made it void. This life was his subjective happiness, so that the loss of it makes him very miserable. It was a vast deal of goodness that was laid up in the promise, but it is all of it gone: it was it's livelihood, how then should it live?

(3.) THE seal hath lest it's interest in God, and his savor. God is the souls objective happiness: nothing but he can be a portion for it; it's blessedness is when it can make that claim, Lam. 3.24. The Lord as my port ••• , saith my soul. Nothing short of the sovereign truth and chief good can be adequate to it; Psal. 73.2 • . Wh • m have •• in heaven but thee! and there is name upon earth that I desire besides thee. Hence that, Psal. 144. ult. Happy is that people that is in s ••• a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. God is ours when we enjoy his favor and loving-kindness, and how great a felicity is that? Psal. 30.5. In his savor is life. And, 63.3. Toy loving-kindness is better than life. But this is gone; he hath now no more claim of title to him; God is no lo • ger his God, but his Enemy. There is a separation made by 〈◊〉 , Isal 59.2. And hence is a • ar off, Psal. • 3.27. And who can express the misery of that s • a • that hath lost it's God? The fruition of 〈◊〉 thousand worlds cannot compensate it. All woes are comprised in it, Hos. 9.12. Yea wa • also to them when I deport from them.

(4.) THE soul • uth •• st it's hope. Hope is the remainder of life in a languishing soul, and the only sign that it hath day breathing in it, Rom. 8.24. For we are saved by hope. But this also man hath lost by his fall. That therefore is one piece of the character of the natural man's state, Eph. 2.12. Having no hope. It is true, there is a door of hope set open to man in the new Covenant, which should make the Gospel precious to all that enjoy it; but in the first covenant, under which all have their natural birth, there is none at all. There was 〈◊〉 room left there for fallen man to rooster any of 〈◊〉 •• ff •• . The damage that be a 〈◊〉 was irreparable. There was no 〈◊〉 for him to recover God's image, and • ar ••• and promise again.

USE. BEFORE I pass hence, let 〈…〉 upon sinners • rong and O • d •• stand fix • 〈…〉 temp ••• e their fearful misery by reason of 〈◊〉 . It may be you little regard it: and if you enjoy health, and ease, and plenty, and pleasure, you think all is well; but 〈◊〉 will you do for your poor souls, which have lost their life and livelihood? hence they •• st their 〈◊〉 and their joy, and their God, and their hope; what have they then left to support them? must it not be a perishing soul indeed that is thus stripped maked of all it's supports and supplies? are your souls of no 〈◊〉 with you? can they be undone, and you do well? are they thus every way ins ••• , and can you laugh, and sing, and sport your 〈◊〉 as if nothing ailed them? A taken our of this so seles, s •• padity, and be sensible of you 〈◊〉 s • ry; and let it is sense make a Christ precious to you, who came to repair this 〈◊〉 reli • re •• etched sinners to spiritual life 〈◊〉 by eatitling them to God's savor, 〈◊〉 his image, bestowing on them better p •••• ses, and giving them an hope that small out make ashamed.

2. THE •• s •• rve miseries of the soul are unturned in the suffering of all these things, 〈◊〉 are contrary to it's s •• erty. There are spiritual plagues as well as bodily, which 〈◊〉 fall hath exposed him to, and brought him under. And the principal of these may be reduced to three heads.

• 1. HE is under the power and dominion 〈◊〉 This is a spiritual evil, and the soul is fully concerned in it. Sin re • gas in him, and his ••• is under the absolute tyranny of it. He 〈◊〉 the image of fin on him, and the it •• oe •• e of it altogether governs him; but of this 〈◊〉 took an account under a former Question all that I shall here say to it is, That the 〈◊〉 is utterly undone by reason of it. He is always heaping up treasures of wrath, • ying in • uel for the devounring fire, he doth 〈◊〉 , he cannot please God, he cannot but a splease him. He is always wronging Li •• oxa 〈◊〉 giving row woulds to i, he is ensnared in •• destruction, and can by no means deliver his own soul; it is the creatures happiness to be rescued from this subjection. Rom. 6.14. For sin shall not have dominion ever you. It 〈◊〉 then needs be his woeful misery to be de ••• ed under it 〈◊〉 the ruling lusts in natural 〈◊〉 are the most cruel lords.
• 2. HE is become a vassal of Satan. This also is a spiritual evil, and a most dismal one it is. Here observe,
  • 1. THAT the fall hath brought mankind under the ••• oiss power. It is true, it is not as their rightful head; for God hath not lost • right to man's obedience, though man hath renounced it: he is God's subject, de June, though he is become the D • v • ls •• luthy; a • d this he shall know to his c • ord • day. Not as it m •••• y by usurpoti ••• ncit ••• ; although S ••• hath thrust himself into i • and hath by an •••• ing ••• le 〈◊〉 man into his own hands, and made himself the god of this world. But there is also man's own choice, and God's judicial 〈◊〉 . In a word, it is the p ••• sh • ent of fi •• man in his apostasy 〈◊〉 rejected God's government, and ••• wod 〈◊〉 suggestions, and God there upon delivered him to Sa ••• , by a permissive providence, and suffered him to role ever him, 〈◊〉 be chose to follow. Hence we read, of the 〈◊〉 power that he hath over all such, Eph. 2.3. The • p •• r •• that 〈◊〉 •••• th in the 〈◊〉 of dis •••••• . 2 Tim. 2.26. I ••• 〈◊〉 when o • p ••• ce by •• em at his will. And that 〈◊〉 put upon him. 1 Cor. 4.1. The God of this 〈◊〉 . Sinners believe him, take him at his ••• d, come and go at his bidding, are his 〈…〉 .
  • 2. THAT thus su • y •••• to Su •• is a de ••• ul •• s • y. However he may please me • with 〈…〉 and large promises, and feed 〈◊〉 up with hopes of • appiness in their •••• ing of him: yet it is certain that it is every 〈◊〉 miserable, a • will appear. For,

    (1.) THE N •• l is a spu • sal cla • rsar • to m • mbed. It is m • re that likely that his ea • y and ••• ce at man made him a Devil, as was 〈◊〉 observed. Hence that is a ti • le put upon 〈◊〉 , 1 Pet. 5.8. A ••• ing him, •• lking 〈◊〉 se • ting whom be may •• over. All his design is to 〈◊〉 men forever; and he can intend nothing else; and what a wretched case are they in, who are under the power of their 〈◊〉 a i ••• co •• leable enemies? and indeed be can as soon cease 〈◊〉 be a Devil, as lay aside there •••• which he hears against all Adam's 〈◊〉 . He was a murderer from the begi ••••• and so he will be to the end.

    (2.) THE bondage be ••• ds men under, is a cruel 〈◊〉 . He is the P • aroah of bell, the service be requires of them, is mere drudgery, it is •••• id ignominious, slavish; it is to gra • ily •• s l ••• s, to fulfil his pleasure; and he •••• ies them to it, with all rigor; he gives there no rest, hath no p • ty for them; compels them to all the vile, shameful things, which •• y bring reproach and intamy upon them; and to such things as may shorten their lives, and turn them out of the world before their time.

    (3.) HE always deceives them. He is called a •••• er; and he makes it his business to 〈◊〉 , and impose upon them: when he speaks them fairest, he is least to be trusted; he makes nothing of lying, for he is the father of lies; and if men will but believe him, he rejoiceth in disappointing them: he promises great things, and feeds men up with hopes of obt ••••• , but he means nothing less; and if he gr ••••• them in anything, it is but to draw the •• the further into his snare, and get them the ••• et in his not.

  • 3. THAT this slavery is a Soul misery. It is true, the body is employed in it, and all the members of it are angaged in this drudgery, but the bondage of it lies on the inward man. It is the Souls destruction the Devil mainly aims at: it is the preciors Soul that he hunts for; he little regards the Body in comparison of that. They are called spiritual wickedn • sses, Eph. 6.12. Not only from their nature, but also from their design. It is true, the Devil would ruin Job in his estate, and torment him in his holy, when he could do no more, but his great a • m was at destroying of his Soul, provoking him to curse God to his face: his dominion is in the hearts of natural men, and they are his voluntary vassals, and chose rather to have their ears bored to him, than come out of his service, and what a fearful misery is this?
• 3. HE is sa • lce under the power of horror of cons •• en • e. And this is wholly and properly a Soul misery. Here we may first consider, what this horror is, and then observe how he is under the power of it.

1. FOR this horror of Conscience, it may be thus described; It is thus killing fear, which poss • sseth a guilty Sinner, a •• sing from the appreh •• sion he hath of the wrath of God. Here observe,

• 1. THE suis •• l of this horror is a guilty Sinner. What guilt is, we have before observed; this lying on the man affords to him the ground and reason of horror; if that were removed, the curse would cease, but whilst it abides there is matter for it; the man being by it bound over to suffer eternal vengeance.
• 2. THAT which c • useth this horror is, the appro •• sio • the man hath of the wrath of God. And this is wrought in the conscience of the sinner, which looks upon his guilt, and passeth a sentence upon him for it. And there are these things in it.

  (1.) HE reads the law, and considers the curses of it; what they are, and for what, and against whom they are denounced; he sees that it is for sin that these curses fall on men, and he looks upon them as terrible things.

  (2.) HE •• ds himself to be under them by reason of sin. His conscience tells him, thou art the man, the law hath hold of thee; his sins state him in the face, and he cannot deny them; conscience chargeth them on him, and votes him guilty.

  (3.) HE apprehends the righteousness of God, in s ••• s • ing 〈◊〉 sin, according to the sentence. That is applied by his conscience, Rom. 2.6. Who will render to every man according to his deeds. and therefore that tells him what he must stand to.

  (4.) HE discovers the power of God. That he is able to do as he hath said; he sees that he is to enter into the list with that God, who hath not an arm of flesh. He reads that, Isai. 40.17. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. There is therefore no escaping from him, but he must be seized by the wrath of an in •• ite God.

• 3. THE horror arising from hence, is a killing fear that surpriseth the soul. And here,

  1. HE is in con ••• nal expectation of divine vengeance. Heb. 10.27. He goes up and down as a condemned malefactor, expecting every hour to be fetched forth to execution. He looks upon God ready to meet him in his anger, and pursue him to destruction. He thinks he hears him saying to him, as, Isai. 47.3. Hos. 13.8. I will meat them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rent the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion.

  2. THIS expectation terribly affrights him. It makes him horribly afraid: he looks upon his punishment as intolerable. Gen. 4.14. He cannot think of it without amazement. Isai. 33.14. The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness surpriseth the hypocrites: who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

  3. THIS terrible fear, fills his soul with bitter pangs of sorrow. For such a fear is a present misery, and it over-burdens the man, and he cannot stand up under it, he falls under deep qualms of trouble; the Soul is intollerably wounded by it. Prov. 18.14. But a wounded spirit who can bear?

  4. THIS makes his soul to sink and die within him. It drinks up his spirits; it extinguisheth all his comforts; he goes up and down a damned creature whiles he lives, and hath an hell in his own conscience: and his terrors make him wish he could fly from God, and hide himself away. Hence that, Rev. 6.15, 16. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman bid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, And said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. And he would fly from himself; yea it makes him an universal terror. Jer. 20 3, 4.

2 We may consider, how far every guilty sinner is under the power of this horror, in these things.

• 1. THERE have been not a few wicked sinners that have in this world been under the efficacy of this horror. Such an one was Cain, Gen. 4.14. He could not bear it. And some think Judas his horror strangled him; however it drew him to it. Math. 27.5. And what a terrible fit was Belsh •• zer in? Dan. 5.5.
• 2. THERE are many that have terrible gripings of this horror, who discover not the wound, but keep it secret. They feign a little mirth, to put a blind upon the world, but who knows what inward pangs they have, though they bite them in? They are in travailing pain, but are not willing to tell it. Prov. 14.10, 13. The heart knoweth his own bitterness. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Job 15.20, 21. The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
• 3. THIS is the ••• t •• n of all sinners from the hand of God, and they are every women liable to it. For,

  1. THEY have no sound bottom of pence 〈◊〉 God. He and they are not reconciled together, if they cry peace to themselves, it is without all reason; their state is terrible, whether they feel or believe it to be so. Isai. 57.20, • 1 but the wicked are like the troubled sea, when a cannot rest, whose waters cast up • ire and 〈◊〉 There is no peace saith my God, to the wicked.

  2. IF they have any respite, it is but a time •• truce. We have observed, that God doth a present moderate the miseries of men, but ye • the controversy abideth. Psal. 50.21, 22. Th •• things b • st thou done, and I kept silence: 〈◊〉 thoughtest that I was altogether such an one a thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them is order before thine eyes. Now consider this ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, & 〈◊〉 be none to deliver.

  3. THEY have the principles & reasons of this horror in them. And if God do but to • th their Consciences, they shall presently 〈◊〉 into it: they are now asleep in carnal securing, but if God awaken them, they suddenly f • ll into this terror, and it is threatened in the word of God; it is included in the curse, and they are laying in more matter for it every day.

USE. LET this then awaken Yo ••• and Old to see and bewail this w • full misery of themselves. Think how it is with you, and • e suitably affected with it. And here,

1. THINK what a spiritual slavery you 〈◊〉 hold under. Your lusts rule in you, and d ••• near over you, your Souls are fettered 〈◊〉 your fins, and you can do nothing else; though' you are told of your evil ways, and know the judgment of God, and the miserable •• i •• they are leading you to, yet you are under their tyranny, and cannot get from under it; but are every day carrying faggots to your own pile of vengeance: and the Devil is your master, you have no command of yourselves, but do and will obey his commands; and Oh! remember, he is driving you to the chambers of death, and hurrying you do •• the steep precipice of everlasting destruction: and how can you endure to live in such a slavery.

2. THINK what horrors your Consciences an exp • sed unto. Have you no reflections 〈◊〉 and then? Are there no inward gripings that terrify you? is all quiet? well, if there be none, there is matter for them, and they will come sooner or later: be then warned in the midst of all your jollity and mirth, to remember the hand-writing of terror that is out against you, and you must be made to read it. It may be it is now laughing time with you, but weeping time hastens on apace. And now what doth all this bespeak, but that you feel this unhappiness, and give welcome entertainment to the glorious deliverance which Jesus Christ hath wrought out, and hath •• vealed to you in the Gospel. He hath purchased a Goal-delivery from the Law, and by his Almighty Power is able and ready to pluck you out of the hand of your spiritual enemies, and bestow a glorious Liberty upon you; so that neither sin, nor Satan, nor your own Consciences, shall anymore be able to harm you. If therefore you have any love for your Souls, make hasie, and fly with speed into His Arms, and accept of His Redemption, so shall your Soul escape as a h •• d from the fowlers saare.

SERMON LXVI.

II. THEY are made liable to Death itself: This is the Second Head unto which the Miseries of fallen Men are reserved. The word, Death, is used in Scripture to express all those evils, whether of sin or sorrow, unto which Man is exposed, and in the cause, Gen 2.17. For in the day the eatest thereof, to •• shalt surely die. It is to be understood as comprehending them all. But in our present Consideration, we are to understand it in a more restrained and vulgar sense, viz. of the Death of the Body; as it comes after, and consummates the miseries of this life. Hence we may consider,

• 1. Of the nature of this Death.
• 2. That it was introduced by men's Apostasy.
• 3. Wherein it appears to be a misery?

1. WE may take an account of the nature of it in this description, A bodily Death, is a 〈◊〉 of the union between the Soul and Body, whereby a separation is made, and so the Body, becomes a carcass, being deprived of all vi • d a ••• as. It is called a bodily death, party to difference it from the spiritual death of the inchoations whereof we have already treated; partly, because only the Body and not the Soul is capable of a proper natural death. Life and Death are contraries, life is the habit, death is the privation of it: so that by the consideration of the one, we are led to see the other. Here then,

• 1. LIFE is a principle or power of self motion is a thing. There are various actions about life, but this is the most general and comprehensive, and is applicable to all the sorts of life which any creatures do enjoy: whatsoever moveth, it is either by an external force applied to it, or by an inward principle; now this inward principle is either a natural quality (by which things out of their place are carried to their proper place, as heavy things move downward; and this doth not amount to life) or such a natural power as by which they move themselves in their place, and this is that we call life.
• 2. MAN consists of two essential constituting parts, viz. a Body, and a reasonable Soul. Neither of these alone is the man, but both in conjunction. The Soul indeed is often taken for the man, it being the noblet and more excellent part in him, but that is not a proper, but a tropical expression: both go together to his specification and personality: we have therefore that account given of his making or constitution, Gen. 2.7.
• 3. MAN's life consists in the man of these race. Man stands is the rack or order of living creatures, and be comes to be so by virtue of this conjunction. The body is the Souls organ, sorted for it to act upon; but the organ without the Soul is a lifeless thing, it is calivered by the putting of that into it, as Gen. 2.7. and though it be usually denominated national, from the most excellent operations of it flowing from it's intellectual and moral powers or faculties by which it is Specified; yet it hath is it all the other powers of life, self motion, and regeration, and sense, which derive from it to the body. Hence when that goes, all go with it.
• 4. HENCE when this 〈◊〉 to by 〈◊〉 , and a separation 〈◊〉 , the body dies. The soul being a principle of life to it, it can live no longer than it enjoys this union: the Souls departing therefore, and dying are used synonymically, Gen. 35.18. As her soul was departing, for she died. How this separation is made, is rather a philosophical than theological enquiry; only let us observe, that as man's body was made of dissoluble principles, being elementary; so the bond of union by which that, and the Soul were conjoined was dissoluble; this bond was the vital spirits, which were the Souls vehicle, and tied it to the body, and therefore by the extinction of those spirits, the separation comes to be made: when they faint and fail, the Soul quits its lodging. Psal. 146.4. His breath goeth forth. Hebr. • erit. See also, Isai. 57.16. and this is either by force, or disease.
• 5. BY this separation the body becomes a carcass, being deprived if all vital actions. The separation is not only the curse of death, but death itself, it being a privation; and this is the proper effect in and by which it is discerned. The sc • l being a constant nature, remains entire and active, and no whit impaired in it's natural powers by being separate; but the body is lifeless, senseless, begins to putrefy, rot, and resolve into it's elementary principles. Eccl. 12.7. Then shall the dast return to the earth at it was. All the powers of self-motion, vegetation, sensation, and reasoning leave it at once; they are not only impeded, or suspended; but altogether cut off; it stirs neither hand nor foot; the nutritive power is gone, and so it corrupts, sight forsakes the eyes, and hearing the ears, and there is no more knowledge in it. Eccl. 9.5. But the dead know not anything. This is a bodily Death.

2. WE may now take notice how this was introduced by man's Apostasy. And here I shall endeavor, to establish this Conclusion, viz. That a bodily doth not befall man by a natural necessary, but as a punishment of si • , and hence it must take us rise from the beginning of stars coming into the world, with was Adam's fall. To make this appear, let me offer these Conclusions,

• 1. THAT all men die, and that according to a statute. That mankind are mortal, needs just as much proof, as that the Sun shines at noon in a fair day; the going of one and coming of another generation, are evident things; so that those are branded for fools, who presume of escaping it, Psal. 49.10. Now this is not a mere casual or eventual thing, but there is a statute for it, Heb. 9.27. It is appointed •• ts men once to die. The word signifies to lay up, or reserve a thing: now who should appoint this; but he who is the law maker, and that is God; there must be a ground or reason of this ordination, and it is worth our enquity after.
• 2. THAT casual immunity, was a privilege belonging to man in his in •• grity. His body indeed had such an origination from, and composition of the Elements, that it stood in need of being maintained by creature sustenance; and being generable, must needs be corruptible in its capacity: but that God was alde to keep him from actual dying, or any tendency to it, is not to be questioned; and that it man had kept his first state, he had never died, is certain. The first covenant had a promise as well as a threatening, and as that was death, so this is life. Rom. 10, 5. The man that doth these things shall live by them. It was therefore after man had finned, and upon it, that he fell under, and heard pronounced upon him the sentence of death, Gen. 3 19. And unto dust shalt then return.
• 3. A ba •• lie death was comprehended in the threatening annexed to the la • e. See Gen. 2.17. Then s •• lt surely die. Active mortality could not be born a condition of nature, and a punishment of fin too: if God had absolutely appointed man to it whether he finned or no, it had been in vain to put him in fear of finning by the danger of it; for what need or reason had there been for it? or what force could there be in it, to tell him that if he transgressed the command he should certainly die, or what awe could it lay upon him, if he knew before that whether he obeyed or no, he must die, nor could be prevent it, by his most perfect obedience, being made for it? True, the death of the body is not all intended in that threatening which grasps in it, all the miseries of Soul and Body, here and hereafter. But the Apostle applies it to the body, Rom. 8.10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. He thereupon argues man's being under the law before Moses by this very thing, Chap. 5.14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression. And Gen. 5. is an historical exemplitication of the effect of the sentence in this part of it.
• 4. MAN had not died, if God had not withdrawn the blessing of immortality which at first be bes •••• ed upon him. There indeed needed to new principles to be put into man to make him mortal; but if that blessing had abode upon him, nothing should have impaired his health, nor shortened his life; 〈◊〉 inward malady should have seized him; • o foreign violence had fallen upon him; 〈◊〉