heart, all combine to accelerate the execution of the fentence of death. 2. Death, in a very important sense, entered immediately with fin. Besides the rational life, which ftill diftinguishes man from the brute creation, he originally pofsessed a spiritual and divine life, for he was created in the image of God, in righteoufnefs and true holiness. He was capable of communion with God, of rejoicing in his favour, and of propofing his will and glory as the great end of his actions. In a word, the prefence and life of God dwelt in him, as in a temple. As the foul is the life of the body, which becomes a carcase, a prey to worms and putrefaction, when the foul has forfaken it; fo God is the life of the foul. Sin defaced his temple, and he forfook it. In this fenfe, when Adam had tranfgreffed the law, he died inftantly, in that very day, in that very moment. He loft his fpiritual life, he loft all defire for communion with God, he no longer retained any love for his Benefactor. He dreaded his prefence, he fought to hide himself from him, and, when obliged to appear and anfwer, ftood felf-condemned before him, till revived revived and restored by the promife of grace. And thus his posterity derive from him, what may be called, a living death. They are dead while they live, dead in trespasses and fins *, till they are again quickened by his holy Spirit. This is not a fubject of common place declamation; it is to be proved by the tenor of scripture, the nature of redemption, and the very reafon of things. Unless we allow that man, in his prefent state, is thus fallen, depraved and dead; we must be reduced to the abfurdity of fuppofing, that God made him fuch a creature as he now is. That when he formed him for himself, and endued him with a capacity and defires, which nothing short of his own infinite goodnefs can fatisfy, he should at the fame time create him with a difpofition to hate his Maker, to feek his fatisfaction in fenfuality upon a level with the brutes, and to confine his views and pursuits within the limits of this precarious life, while he feels, in defiance of himself, an inftinctive thirst for immortality. Man confidered in this view, would be a folecifm in the creation; and they who do not acquiefce, in the cause which * Eph. ii. 1. the His the fcripture affigns, for the inconfiftencies and contradictions, which are found in his character, will never be able to affign any other caufe, which will bear the trial of fober and rational examination. What the poet fays of Beelzebub, Majestic though in ruins, may be truly affirmed of man. faculties and powers are proofs of his original greatness; his awful mifapplication of them equally prove, that he is a fallen and ruined creature. He has loft his true life, he is dead in fin, and unless renewed and revived by the grace God, can only, in a future ftate, be fit for the company of the fallen angels. 3. Death, as the wages of fin, extends ftill farther. There is the second death, the final and eternal mifery of foul and body in hell. This we know is the dreadful lot of the impenitent. We need no other proof that this was included in the fentence; for, certainly, the righteous Judge, would not inflict a greater punishment than he had denounced. Indeed, it follows of courfe, in the very nature of things, if we admit the foul to be immortal, a refurrection both of the juft and the unjuft, and that there remains no other facri VOL. II. T fice fice for fin, in favour of those who reject the gofpel. For to be difowned of God in the great day, to be feparated from his favourable prefence, and confcious of his endlefs difpleasure; to be abandoned to the unrestrained rage of finful dispositions, and hopelefs defpair; to be inceffantly tormented by the ftings of a remorseful confcience must be, upon the principles of fcripture, the unavoidable consequences of being cut off by death, in an unhumbled, unpardoned, unfanctified ftate. II. But, blessed be God, the gospel reveals a relief and remedy, fully adapted to the complicated mifery in which fin has involved us. As by man came death, by man alfo came the refurrection from the dead. MESSIAH has made an end of fin, and destroyed the power of death. They who believe in him, though they were dead shall live*. For he is the Refurrection of the dead, and the Life of the living. I. He raises the foul from the death of fin, unto a life of righteoufnefs. By his blood he procures a right and liberty, and by his Spirit he communicates a power, that * John xi. 25. thofe those who were afar off, may draw nigh to God. Thus, even at prefent, believers are said to be risen with him.*. Their spiritual life is renewed, and their happiness is already commenced, though it be as yet fubject to abatements. 1. Though when they are made partakers of his grace, and thereby delivered from the condemning power of the law, fin has no longer dominion over them, as formerly; yet it ftill wars and ftrives within them, and their life is a ftate of continual warfare: They now approve the law of God, as holy, juft and good, and delight in it after the inward man †, yet they are renewed but in part. They feel a law in their members warring against the law of their minds. They cannot do the things that they would, nor as they would; for when they evil is prefent with them. would do good, They are con scious of a defect, and a defilement, attending their beft fervices. Their attainments are unspeakably fhort of the defires, which, love to the Redeemer has raised in their hearts. They are afhamed, and fometimes almost discouraged. They adopt the apof * Col. iii. 1. + Rom. vii. 12—19. ́ T 2 tle's |