Use 2d. Let us lay to heart original sin, and be deeply humbled for it ; it cleaves to us as a disease, — it is an active principle in us stirring us up to evil. Original sin is Avorse than all actual sin ; the fountain is more than the stream. Some think, as long as they are civil, they are well enough ; ay, hut the nature is poisoned. A river may have fair streams, but vermin at bot- tom. Thou carriest an hell about thee, thou canst do nothing but thou defilest it; thy heart, like muddy ground, defiles the purest water that runs through it. Nay, though thou art regenerate, tliere is much of the old man in the new man. O how should original sin humble us ! This is one reason God hath left original sin in us, because he would have it as a thorn in our side to humble us. As the bishop of Alex- andria, after the ])eople had embraced Chris- tianity, destroyed all their idols but one, tliat tlie sight of that idol might make them loathe themselves for their former idolatry, so God leaves original sin to pull down the plumes of pride. Uiuler our silver wings of grace are black feet.
Use 3d. Let (he sense of this make us daily look up to heaven for help, beg Christ's blood to wash away the guilt of sin, and his Spirit to mortify the power of it, beg further degrees of grace, — <iratium Christi 10 obnoxius ambiamus. Though grace can- not make sin not to be, yet not to reign ; though grace cannot expel sin, it can repel it ; and for our comfort, where grace makes a combat with sin, death shall make a con- quest.
Use ith. Let original sin make us walk with continual jealousy and watchfulness over our heart.s. The sin of our nature is like a sleejnng lion, the least thing that 3/-
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MAN'S MISERY BY THE FALL.
walcens it makes it rage. The sin of our nature, tliongh it seems quiet, and lies as fire hid under the embers, yet if it be a little stirred and blown up by a temptation, how quickly may it flame forth into scandalous
evils ! Therefore we liad need always to walk watchfully, Mark xiii. 37., " I say to you all, Watch." A wandering heart needs a watchful eye.
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MAN'S MISERY BY THE FALL.
Quest. XIX. WHATisthemiserijoflhat estate whereinto man fell?
Ans. All mankind by their fall lost com- munion with God, are under liis wrath and Curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.
Eph. ii. 3., * And were by nature children of wrath.' Adam left an unhappy portion to his posterity. Sin and Misery. We have already considered the first of these, origi- nal sin, — now the misery of that estate. In the first, we have seen mankind offending; in the second, we shall see him suffering. The misery ensuing from original sin is two- fold.
\st. Private. By this first hereditary Bin we have lost communion with God. Adam was God's familiar, his favourite ; but sin hath put us all out of favour ; when we lost God's image, we lost his acquaint- ance. God's banishing Adam out of para- dise, hieroglyphically, it shewed how sin hath banished us out of God's love and fa- vour.
2rf. Positive. In four things. 1. Under the power of Satan. 2. Heirs of God's wrath.
3. Subject to all the miseries of this life
4. Obnoxious to hell and damnation.
1. The fiist misery is. By nature we are " under the power of Satan," who is called ' the prince of the power of the air,' Eph. ii. 2. Before the fall, man was a free deni- son, — now a slave; before, a king on the throne, — now in fetters. And who is man enslaved to ? To one that is an hater of him. This was an aggravation of Israel's servi- tude, Ps. cvi. 41., " They that hated them ruled over them." By sin we are enslaved to Satan, who is an hater of mankind, and writes all his laws in blood. Sinners bo- fore conversion are under Satan's command, as the ass at the command of the driver, he