gloomy Appearance of Sin and Misery, and Prefumption will be the Refult of his Reflections: But when we take a joint View of thefe Articles, when we confider, that Sin is bafe and deadly, that Grace is purifying and enlivening, that if we live in Sin, eternal Punishments will be our Portion, but on the contrary, that through Grace we shall partake of the Inheritance with the Bleffed Saints in Light, we shall then poffefs our Souls of fuch a Sense of Sin, as will put us upon every Method of procuring the bleffed Influences of Divine Grace; fuch a Senfe of Divine Grace, as will engage us utterly to forfake our Sins: A compounded Senfe of these two Articles will enrich us with the largest Hopes, but curb every Swelling of Prefumption, will impress upon us a Religious Fear, but raife us far above the abject Wretchedness of Despair.

THE Apostle in the Words of the Text carries both of thefe Articles up to the Fountain from whence they spring, and gives us a joint View of them in their first Origin: We are all Sinners, as we are all defcended of Adam; but the Grace of God; which

E 3

which bringeth Salvation, appears unto all Men, through the Righteousness of One, Chrift Jefus.

IT fhall be the Bufinefs of this Difcourfe to confider the true State of Man with respect to Nature and Grace, both in a feparate and compounded View ; and the Words of the Text will furnish out Matter for fo doing, under the three following Heads :

I. THEY declare the Condition of Man
under a State of Nature, as it is ex-
preffed in thefe Words; By one Man's
Difobedience many were made Sinners.

II. THEY declare the Condition of
Man under a State of Grace, as it is
expreffed in thefe Words, By the
Obedience of One mary fhall be made
Righteous.

;

III. and laftly, THEY fet these two States one against another for as by one Man's Difobedience many were made Sinners; fo by the Obedience of One fhall many be made Righteous.

1. THEN, the Words of the Text declare the Condition of Man under a State

of

of Nature, as it is exprefs'd in thefeWords, By one Man's Difobedience many were made Sinners.

THE Term many might more properly be tranflated the many, i. e. Mankind in general; and accordingly the Apostle, in declaring and illuftrating this Article, does in feveral Places of this Chapter express himself by the Term all Men; were made Sinners, does not come up to the Force of the Original, were conftituted Sinners, were fix'd and establish'd in Sin; fo that their being made Sinners here fignifies fomething more than their becoming Sinners in confequence of Adam's Fall, only by imitating his Tranfgreffion; in thať he finned, we finned likewife; his Guilt and Punishment became ours. His actual Offence derived an universal Stain upon all his Pofterity, and is fo far imputed unto us, that Sin is even a Part of our Constitution, and is infeparable from our very Beings.

THAT all Mankind are actually Sinners is a Truth too obvious to want to be attefted by Revelation, yet Scripture-Language is very strong and frequent in declaring it. E 4

The

The Children of Men are corrupt; they do abominable Works; they are all gone out of the way; there is none that doeth good, no, not one: We all, as Sheep, go aftray; we have turned every one to our own Way; we all are as an unclean thing; there is no Man that finneth not ; in many things we offend all: We all come short of the Glory of God, and the whole World lies in Wickedness.

AGAIN, that this univerfal Spreading of Iniquity, proceeds from fome univerfal Principle, viz. an Original Depravity of our Nature, which fubjects every one who is born into the World to the Dominion of Sin, Reafon likewife will be ready enough to declare, when it confiders that natural Proneness, which all Men bear to Sin, that natural Averfion they bear to Righteousness; when it confiders (to ufe Scripture-Language again) that we are even born in Sin, and conceiv'd in Iniquity; that as foon as we are born we go aftray, and peak Lies; that in our Flef dwelleth no good thing; for to will is prefent with us; but to perform that which is good, we find not; that there is

a Law

a Law in our Members, warring against the Law of our Mind; that the Flesh lufteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh; and that those who are the fartheft advanced in Holiness, fall under these contrary Luftings, fo that they cannot always do the things that they would; for the Good that they would, they do not, and the Evil which they would not, that they do.

FROM which Paffages we may fairly collect, that there is a Corruption natural and intimate to us, from whence all our actual Tranfgreffions flow; that this original Depravity is in itself finful, and that it lays us even under a Neceffity of finning actually.

THE Intimacy it bears with our very Being is evident from its difcovering itself fo very early in Life, and exerting itself fo powerfully throughout the Whole of our Lives; it confifts in the natural Predominancy of our fenfitive Faculties, and we all know that Senfe bears the entire Sway for many Years at the Beginning of our Age; and, notwithstanding all the Aids and Supports which Reason

and