question incapable of actual sinning in their own persons, Rom. v. 14, and ix. 11, yet it is undeniable they are liable to misery, pains, sickness, and die as well as those who are grown person. The groans and tears of parents over the cradles, the moans and distress of poor harmless babes, the graves of the smallest size in the churchyard, are demonstrations of these. Yea, look to the old world, swept away with the flood, and there you will see the infants drowned with the sinners a hundred years old. Look to the overthrow of Sodom, and you will see them burnt in the fire from heaven with the lustful parents that begot them. Look to Jerusalem when it was destroyed, and there you will see them pining to death by famine, with the aged sinners. Then look up to heaven, and behold a holy, just God, who sent these plagues, and consider if it be consistent with his holy nature to treat innocent senseless persons at that rate. And after all look into your Bible, and you will see how God is justified in all these. There you will see the threatening of death annexed to the sin of breaking the covenant of works, Gen. iii. 17, and seeing it executed upon them, ye must needs conclude they are guilty. There you find "death passes on all, for that all have sinned;" Rom. v. 12, "reigns over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," ver. 14, and thence you must conclude them sinners. There it appears, that "the wages of sin is death," Rom. vi. 23; they receive the wages, they must have then wrought the work of sin; not in their own persons surely, for they were not capable; therefore they sinned in Adam. As for the corruption of their nature, it justifies this procedure indeed; but yet the propagation of it to them is owing to this first sin; and the dispensation of God in that matter must be justified, by their guilt of that sin.

5. Lastly, The comparison stated in scripture, betwixt Christ and Adam, plainly evinceth this. The apostle, Rom. v. 14, tells us that Adam was a type or figure of Christ; and 1 Cor. xv. 45, he calls the one the "first Adam," the other the "last Adam.' Whence it appears, that as Christ was the federal head in the covenant of grace; so Adam was the federal head in the covenant of works. we may gather,

Whence

(1.) That as Christ, in his obedience and death, stood not as a private person, but what he did and suffered, he did and suffered as a public person, to be imputed to all his spiritual seed; 2 Cor. v. 21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;" so Adam sinning, and breaking the covenant of works, did what he did not as a private man, whose guilt remains with himself, but as a public per

son, whose deed was to be imputed to all his posterity, or natural seed; Rom. v. 18," By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation."

(2.) That since Adam was eventually a head of destruction and ruin to all his seed, and Christ a head of reparation and salvation to all that were his seed of the shipwrecked multitude; 1 Cor. xv. 22, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;" then as God laid on Christ the iniquities of all that are his, making them to meet on him, Isa. liii. 6, so Adam's sin was from him diffused, and came upon all that were his, Rom v. 12; for the one was to repair those whom the other had destroyed; to pay their debts which they had been involved in by the other.

(3.) As believers obeyed and satisfied in Christ their head in the second covenant, so all men sinned in Adam their head in the first covenant. The former is the doctrine of the scripture. "The righteousness of the law was fulfilled in them," Rom. viii. 4. They were "crucified with him," Gal. ii. 20; which further appears, in that they were raised up, and set in heaven in him," Eph. ii. 6. Hence the latter is established; we broke the law in Adam, and sinned against God in him.

(4.) Lastly, As we are made righteous by the obedience of Christ; so we are made sinners by the disobedience of Adam. So says the text. But we are made righteous by the obedience of Christ imputed to us, therefore we are made sinners through the disobedience of Adam imputed to us. Christ's righteousness is really ours, not in its effects only, but in itself, being that very righteousness on which we are acquitted and justified. So Adam's sin is really ours, not in its effects only, but in itself, being that upon which we are all by nature condemned persons, Rom. v. 18. As soon as we have a spiritual being in Christ, and are united to him by his Spirit and by faith, so soon is Christ's righteousness ours; and as soon as we have a natural being as children of Adam, Adam's sin is ours.

So much for the proof of this doctrine, That Adam's first sin, the sin of breaking the covenant of works, by eating the forbidden fruit, is our sin, our breaking of it, or is imputed to his posterity.

The Ground and Reason of the Imputation of Adam's first sin to his Posterity.

IV. I shall show the ground and reason why Adam's first sin, or breaking of the covenant of works, is our sin, our breaking of it. This is the foundation of the imputation of that sin to us, and lies in these two things jointly.

1. He was our natural or seminal head, the natural root of all

mankind, Acts xvii. 26. God set up the human nature in him pure and undefiled, blessed him with fruitfulness, Gen. i. 28, and from him all mankind derive their pedigree. So that as Levi, being in the loins of Abraham, when Melchisedek met him, paid tithes in Abraham, Heb. vii. 9, 10, so we, being in the loins of Adam, when the tempter met him, sinned and broke the covenant in him. But,

2. Which is the main thing, He was our federal head in the covenant of works, our representative in that bargain. There was a proper covenant betwixt God and Adam; and in it Adam was not considered as a private person, but stood as the head of all mankind in it, acting for himself and for his posterity whom he represented; even as the second Adam in the covenant of grace. And thus his sin was ours. Even as Abraham, having the covenant made with him, was the federal as well as natural head of Levi, being the covenant-head of the Jewish nation; and therefore Levi in his loins is reckoned to have paid tithes to Melchisedek.

The sum of the matter lies here; all mankind being originally one in Adam, were made legally one in him and with him, by the covenant of works entered into with Adam, as the head of all mankind, constituted by God himself, the infinitely wise and absolute Lord of all the creatures. By the bond of the covenant superadded to the natural tie betwixt him and us, we were made one with him, to all the purposes of the covenant. And being thus one with him, his sin in breaking of the covenant was ours as well as his. The being of this covenant I have already proved, and have also accounted for the equity and justice of this dispensation.

The Doctrine of the Imputation of Adam's First Sin to his Posterity applied.

USE I. This truth serves to discover, and set before our eyes, 1. The malignant nature of sin. It is an infectious vapour, a plague, a pest to mankind, of a killing nature, wherever it comes. One sinner of mankind infected the whole race; one morsel of that leaven leavened the whole nature of man. It is the spiritual pestilence in the world, that makes more spiritual havoc than fire and sword; an emblem of which God is giving this day in France by a bodily pestilence, with which also he is threatening these nations.* It is Solomon's observation, "That one sinner destroyeth much good," Eccl. ix. 18. This is emphatically represented to us in the case of Adam, and often in the case of many particular sinners

* This part of the subject was preached in November, 1721, at which time the plague raged in France. Happily, Great Britain and Ireland escaped that dreadful scourge.

among us, whose sphere of activity is more narrow; but O what destruction do they make within their bounds! this malignity of it appears,

(1.) In its spreading from the sinner to all that are concerned in him, destroying and breaking down like a flood where it comes. The peace and purity of the whole world was marred by Adam's sin; and the peace and purity of lesser societies are still marred with the sins of others, Heb. xii. 15. The apostle exhorts Christians to "look diligently, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble them, and thereby many be defiled." How many such roots of bitterness are sprung up in our land, where with the peace and purity of church and state are both marred together at this day. How many such have sprung up and are still springing up among us, whose pangs of lust mar the quiet of families, leave a blot on them, make the congregation a reproach, and to stink in the nostrils of the sober part of their neighbours.

(2.) In that when the sinner is dead and gone, his sin lives and works after him. It is long since Adam died, but still his sin is working. Jeroboam sinned so in his life, as that he opened such a sluice as ran for several generations after he was silent in the grave. And thus do the sins of many still live and destroy much good after they are gone. And therefore, besides the particular judgment at death, there is a general judgment at the end of the world, where people must answer for the mischief done by the current of their sin in the world after they were gone out of it.

2. The awful and tremendous holy sovereignty of God, whose judgments are always just, but often unsearchable. When one considers how God made the angels independent upon one another as to standing and falling, but comprehended the whole race of mankind under one federal head; whom also, in the depth of his sovereign wisdom he permitted to fall, when he could have held him up; so as all mankind are ruined in him; must we not cry out, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out," Rom. xi. 33. The dispensation was just, he can do us no wrong; it was becoming the divine perfections, and designed for holy ends in the depth of wisdom. But in the meantime, there is need of a holy, humble spirit to adore the sovereignty of it.

3. The impossibility of our obtaining salvation by the way of this covenant. What hopes can we have of living by doing, when it has misgiven in our head already, when we were fitted for working at another rate than we can pretend to be now? We have already broken that covenant, fallen under the penalty of it, the which we

must needs discharge before we can have access to begin again on new ground, to look for life by keeping it better. And who of us is able to discharge that debt to the justice of God? "Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight," Rom. iii. 20.

4. The glory of the contrivance of the second covenant by the ever-blessed Trinity, and of the performance of it by the second Adam in our nature. Look here and behold the necessity of it for our salvation; what could they have done for themselves, who had ruined themselves, and were brought into the world in a state of condemnation? There was a necessity of the obedience and death of Christ in that case; Luke xxiv. 26, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?" Behold the suitableness of it; man was ruined by Adam's breaking the first covenant, and the remedy is provided by Christ's keeping the second covenant. Behold the perfection of it. It takes away not only this sin, but all other sins too. How strong is the grace of Christ, that is able to stop the torrent of Adam's sin, increased with innumerable personal sins running with it in one channel? Rom. v. 16.

5. Lastly, A notable confirmation of believers' faith as to the imputation of Christ's righteousness and death unto them, upon their embracing the covenant of grace. Is Adam's sin ours by virtue of our union with him as the federal head in the covenant of works? Surely Christ's righteousness, obedience, and death, are no less ours in virtue of our union with Christ, the federal head in the second covenant. That God who imputes the one to all mankind for condemnation, will much more impute the other to believers for justification.

USE II. This doctrine serves to stir up to several duties. And, 1. Be convinced of this sin as your sin. Take it home to yourselves among the rest of the pieces of guilt, chargeable upon you before the Lord. God charges it on all mankind as their sin; all men therefore ought to charge it on themselves, since he is the Amen, faithful and true Witness, and cannot charge any with guilt falsely or by mistake. It is hard to convince men of this; but when the Spirit of the Lord comes to carry the work of conviction through, he will fasten this conviction on the conscience among others; and how can one sue for the pardon of that sin which he will not admit the conviction of?

2. Confess and mourn over this sin before the Lord. Be humbled under the sense of it, and anxiously inquire how ye may be saved from it, and the wrath and curse of God due to you for it. Consider seriously how this debt is on your head by nature, how you are transgressors from the womb, breakers of covenant with God, fallen un