In prosecuting this important subject, we shall en- deavour to establish,
I. The truth asserted —
The doctrine of Original Sin is here distinctly affirmed. It is indeed by many denied, under the idea that it would be inconsistent with the goodness and mercy of God to send into the world immortal Beings in any other state than one of perfect purity. But it is in vain for us to teach God what he ought to do : the question for us to consider, is, What hath God done ? and what account has he himself given us of our state 1 And here, if the Scriptures be true, there is no room for doubt : we are the cor- rupt offspring of degenerate parents ; from whom we derive a polluted nature, which alone, since their fall, they could possibly transmit. This we shall proceed to prove,
1 . From concurring testimonies — [ISIoses, in his account of the first man that was born into the world, expressly notices, that Adam begat him not in the likeness of God, in which he himself had been originally created, but " in /iw oww likeness," as a fallen and corrupt creature ^'i and how different the one from the other, may be conjectured from the conduct of this first-born, who imbrued his hands in his brother's blood. In his account too, as well of the post- diluvian, as of the ante-diluvian world, he tells us, that *' every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually''." Job, not only affirms the same awful truth, but shews us that it is impossible in the nature of things to be other- wise ; since from a thing that is radically and essentially unclean, nothing but what is unclean can proceed*^. The testimony of Isaiah and Jeremiah is altogether to the same effect '^ ; as is that also of Solomon in the book of Ecclesia&tes^ And, in the New Testament, our Lord himself teaches us to regard the heart as the proper womb, where every species of iniquity is generated, and from whence it proceeds *": and St. Paul declares of himself, as well as all the rest of the human race, that they " are by nature children of wrath '." But how can we be in such a state by nature, if we are not corrupt ? Can God regard as objects of his Wrath creatures that possess his perfect image ? No : it is
as
» Gen. V. 3. '' Gen. vi. 5. & viii. 21.
*= Job xiv. 4. & XV. 14—16. & XXV. 4. ** Isai. vi. 5. Jer. xvii, 9.
• Eccl. vs.. 3. ' JVIark vii. 21. » 2ph. ii. 3.