THE DEAD MAN. 401
not afraid of the first death, we should be afraid of the second death that follows. ' We are all dead in trespasses and sins.'
Now what is the reason of it why we are dead ?
First of all, The ground of it is : by sin we are separated from the fountain of life ; therefore we are all dead.
Secondly, By sin we lost that first original righteousness which was corn- produced with Adam's soul. When Adam's soul was infused, it was clothed with all graces, with original righteousness. The stamp of God was on his soul. It was co-natural to that estate and condition to have that excellent gracious disposition that he had. Now, because we all lost that primitive image and glory of our souls, we are dead.
We are dead likewise, not only in regard of the time past, but for the time to come. No man by nature hath fellowship with the second Adam till he be grafted into him by faith, which is a mere* supernatural thing. In these regards every man naturally is dead.
Nay, sin itself, it is not only a cause of death, — of temporal death as it is a curse, and so of eternal death ; of that bitter sentence and adjudging of us too, both that we feel in terrors of conscience and expect after, — but sin itself is an intrinsecal death. Why ? Because it is nothing but a separation of the soul from the chief good, which is God, and a cleaving to some creature ; for there is no sin but it carries the soul to the changeable creature in delight and afiection to its pride and vanity, one thing or other. Sin is a turning from God to the creature, and that very turning of the soul is death : every sinful soul is dead. In these and the like considera- tions you may conceive we are all dead.
* And you hath he quickened who were dead,' &c.
Let us consider a little what a condition this is, to be ' dead in trespasses and sins.' Not to speak of the danger of the death of sentence, when a man by the state of nature lies under the wrath of God, that hangs over his head and is ready to crush him every moment, but to speak of that death that seizeth upon our dispositions, we are dead by nature. And what doth death work upon the body ?
1. Unactirencss, stiffness ; so when the Spirit of God is severed from the soul it is cold, and unactive, and stifi". Therefore those that find no life to that that is good, no, nor no power nor strength, it is a sign that they have not yet felt the power of the quickening Spirit ; when they hear coldly and receive the sacrament coldly, as if it were a dead piece of work and business ; when they do anything that is spiritually good coldly and forced, not from an inward principle of love to God, that might heat and warm their hearts, but they go about it as a thing that must be done, and think to satisfy God with an outward dead action.
2. Again, death makes the body unlovehj. Abraham would buy a piece of ground that he might bury his dead out of his sight ; he could not endure the sight of his own beloved wife when she was dead. Death takes away the beauty and the honour that God hath put upon the body, so that it is not honourable to those that behold it after death. The image of God stamped upon the soul of man by the Spirit, it is the glory of a man ; after sin it is an unlovely soul. * We are all deprived of the glory of God,' as St Paul saith, Rom. iii. 23.
3. And not only so, but there is a loathsomeness contrary to that honour that was in it before. Though all art and skill be used that may be to set out a dead body, — with flowers, or whatsoever you will, — to please the
* That is, ' altogether.' — G. VOL. VII. c c
402 THE DEAD MAN.
fancy of tbo living, yet it is but a dead body, and the stench will be above
all other sweet smells. So let any natural man be as witty, and as learned,
and as great, and as rich as you will, or as he can be set out with all these
ornaments and flowers, yet he is but a carrion, a loathsome creature to God,
if his soul be separate from God and inwardly cleave to the creature. If
ho have not a new heart, he is abominable and loathsome to God, and to
all that have the Spirit of God. A dead soul is abominable to all God's
senses. The scripture thus familiarly condescends unto us ; he will not
behold him. ' He looks upon the proud afar oft',' Isa. ii. 12. And he smells
no favour* from their performances, * The very sacrifice of the wicked is
abominable,' Isa. i. 13. He looks upon them as we do upon a dunghill,
as a loathsome thing : ' The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to