m

come by the corrupt and sensual appetites of the body. And to all this agrees what a learned author well observes, "God is to be considered by us, not as a Creator only, but also as a Judge; he is the Creator of the soul, as to its substance; in respect to which it is pure when created. Moreover, God is a Judge, when he creates a soul, as to this circumstance; namely, that not a soul simply is to be created by him; but a soul of one of the sons of Adam: in this respec: it is just with him to desert the soul, as to his own image, lost in Adam; from which desertion follows a want of original righteousness; from which want, original sin, itself is propagated."

Should it be said, that though the justice and holiness of God are cleared from all imputation, in this way of considering things; yet it does not seem so agreeable to the goodness and kindness of God to create such a soul, and unite it to a body, in the plight and condition before described; since the natural consequence seems to be unavoidably the moral pollution of them both. To which may be replied, that God in this proceeds according to the original law of nature, fixed by himself; and which, according to the invariable course of things, appears to be this, with respect to the propagation of mankind: That when matter generated, is prepared for the reception of the soul; as soon as that preparation is finished; that very instant a soul is created, and ready at hand to be united to it, and it is. Now the law for the propagation of mankind by natural generation, was given to Adam in a state of innocence, and as soon as created, Increase and multiply; he after this corrupted and defiled the whole frame of his nature, and that of all his posterity. Is it reasonable now, that because man has departed from his obedience to the law of God, that God should depart from his original law, respecting man's generation? It is not reasonable he should, nor does he, nor will he depart from it: this appears from cases, in which, if in any, he could be thought to do so; as in the case of insanity, which infects a man's blood and family, and becomes a family-disorder; and yet to put a stop to this God does not depart from the order of things fixed by him; and so in the case of such who are unlawfully begotten, in adultery or formication; when what is generated is fit to receive the soul, there is one prepared and united to it. And sometimes in this way God brings into the world some that belong to the election of grace; one of our Lord's ancestors came into the world in this way, Gen. xxxviii. 29. Matt. i. 3. What if Adam eats the forbidden fruit, and men drink water out of another's cistern, stolen waters, which are sweet unto them, and thereby transgress the law of God; must he forsake his own stated law and order of things? -No; nature itself does not do so: man steals a quantity of wheat, and sows it in his field; nature proceeds according to its own laws, fixed by the God of nature; the earth receives the seed, though stolen, into its bosom, cherishes it, and throws it out again, and a plentful crop is produced. And shall nature act its part, and not the God of nature? He will; and the rather he will go on in his constant course, that the sin of Sandford or Parker de Descensu Christ ad inferos, 1. g. s. 65. p. 121, 122.

men might be manifest, and that sin be his punishment. And in this light, indeed, we are to consider the corruption of nature; a moral death, which is no other than a deprivation of the image of God, a loss of original righteousness, and an incapacity to attain to it, was threatened to Adam, and inflicted on him. as a punishment. And since all his posterity sinned in him, why should not the same pass upon them? and, indeed, it is by the just ordination of God, that things are as they be, in consequence of Adam's sin, who cannot do an unjust thing; there is no unrighteousness in him; he is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works; and so in this. And here we should rest the matter; in this we should acquiesce; and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

OF ACTUAL SINS AND TRANSGRESSIONS.

FROM the sin of Adam arises the corruption of nature, with which all man_ kind, descending from him by ordinary generation, are infected; and from the corruption of nature, or indwelling sin, arise many actual sins and iniquities; which are called in scripture, The works of the flesh, or corrupt nature, in distinction from the fruits of the Spirit, or inward principles of grace and holiness; These are the same with the lusts of the flesh, and the desires or wills of the flesh, Eph. ii. 3. The internal sinful actings of the mind and will; even all manner of concupiscence, which lust, or corrupt nature works in men, and which war against the soul: they are called sometimes, the deeds of the body, of the body of sin; which, through the Spirit, are mortified, weakened, kept under, so as not to be frequently committed, and be a course of sinning, Rom. viii, 13. And sometimes, the deeds of the old man, the old principle of corrupt nature, to be put off, with respect to the outward conversation, and not be governed by the dictates of it, Col. iii. 9. Sometimes they are represented by corrupt fruit, brought forth by a corrupt tree; such is man's sinful heart and nature, and such the acts that spring from it: if the tree is not good, good fruit will not grow upon it: the heart must be made good ere good works can be done by inen, Matt. vii. 16-20. Those actual sins are the birth of corrupt nature, which is like a woman that conceives, bears, and brings forth; When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, James i. 15. Corrupt nature is the fountain, and actual sins, whether internal or external, are the streams that flow from it; Out of the heart, as from a fountain, proceed evil thoughts, &c. Matt. xv. 19. as is the spring, so are the streams; if water at the fountain-head, is bitter, so are the streams; Doth a fountain send forth at the same place, sweet water and bitter? No.

Actual sins are deviations from the law of God; for sin is the transgression of the law, John iii. 4. Actions, as natural actions, are not sinful; for all actions, or motions, are from God, the first Cause; from whom nothing sinful comes; creatures depend on him in acting, as well as in subsisting; In him we move; or

otherwise they would be dependent of him; whereas, all things are of him. But an action is denominated good or bad, from its agreement or disagreement with the law of God, its conformity or disconformity to it; it is the irregularity, obJiquity, and aberration of the action from the rule of the divine law, that is sin; and this whether in thought, word, or deed; for actual sius are not to be restrained to outward actions, performed by the members of the body, as instruments of unrighteousness; but include the sinful actings of the mind, evil thoughts, carnal desires, the lusts of the heart, heresies, errors in the mind, false opinions of things, and envyings, are reckoned among the works of the flesh, Gal. v. 20. And when we distinguish actual sins from original sin, we do nor mean thereby that original sin is not actual. The first sins of Adain and Eve were actual sins, transgressions of the law of God; Eve was in the transgression; that is, guilty of an act of transaction; and we read of Adam's transgression, which designs the first sin he committed. And original sin, as derived from the sin of our first parents, is also actual; it is a want of conformity to the law of God, and is very active and operative; as it dwells in men, it works in them all manner of concupiscence; it hinders all the good, and puts upon doing all the evil it can; and is itself exceeding sinful. But actual sins are second acts, that flow from the corruption of nature. My business is not now to enlarge on particular sins, by explaining the nature, and shewing the evil of them; which more properly belongs to another part of my scheme that is to follow, even Practical Divinity. I shall therefore only treat of actual sins very briefly, in a doctrinal way, by giving the distribution of sins into their various sorts and kinds, reducing them to proper classes, and ranging them under their respective heads. I. With respect to the object of sin, it may be distinguished into sins against God; sins against others, our neighbours, friends, and those in connection with us; and against ourselves; for which distinction there seems to be some toundation in 1 Sam. ii. 25. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? - 1. There are some sins that are more immediately and directly against God; all sin, indeed, is ultimately against him, being contrary to his nature and will; a transgression of his law; a contempt and neglect, and, indeed, a tacit denial of his legislative power and authority; who is that Lawgiver that is able to save and destroy. The sins of David against Uriah, are confessed by him to be against the Lord; Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, Psal. li. 4. But there are some sins more particularly pointed at him, committed against him, in an open, bold, and audacious manner; Their tongues and their doings are against the Lord, Isai. iii. 8. Such are they as Eliphaz describes, who stretch out their hands against Ged, Job xv. 25, 26. their carnal minds being enmity against God. Particularly sins against the first table of the law, are sins against God; such as atheism in theory and in practice; which is, a denying that there is a God, and strikes at the very Being of him; blasphemy of his name, his perfections and providences; which is one of the things that proceed from the evil heart of man: Idolatry, having

other gods before him, and serving the creature besides the Creator; bowing down to, and worshipping idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone: to which may be added, sensuality, voluptuousness, making the belly a god, and covetousness, which is idolatry: Taking the name of God in vain, using it on trifling occasions, and in a light and irreverent manner; cursing fellow-creatures in the name of God, and swearing falsely by it, which is perjury; Want of love to God, and of fear of him; having no regard to his worship, private and public; a profanation of the day of worship, and a neglect of the ordinances of divine service. 2. Sins against others, are the violations of the second table of the law; as disobedience to parents; not giving that honour, shewing that reverence and respect, and paying that regard to their commands that ought to be: to which head may be reduced, disobedience to all superiors; the king as supreme, the father of his country; subordinate magistrates; ministers of the word; masters, &c. Murder, or the taking away of the life of another, is a sin against the sixth Command, as the former are against the fifth; of this there are divers sorts; as parricide, fratricide, &c. which last is the first actual sin we read of after the sin of our first parents; it seems as if the sin of murder greatly abounded in the old world, since at the beginning of the new, a special law respecting it was made; Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, Gen. ix. 6. All sins of unchastity, in thoughts, and by obscene words and filthy actions, are violations of the seventh Command, which forbids adultery, fornication, incest, and all unnatural lusts: Taking away a man's property, privately or publicly, by force or fraud, by false accusations, and by circumventing and overreaching in trade and business, are breaches of the eighth command; and not only doing injury to the persons and properties of others, but to their good name, credit and reputation, comes under the name of actual sins against others; for taking away a man's good name is as bad as taking away his money, and is next to taking away his life.-3. There are sins against a man's self; the apostle reckons fornication as sinning against a man's own body, 1 Cor. vi. 18. what is a pollution of it, brings dishonour upon it, fils it with nauseous diseases, and weakens the strength of it. Drunkenness is another sin against a man's self; it is what deprives him of the exercise of his reason, impairs his health, wastes his time, his substance, and at last his body. Suicide is a sin against a first principle of nature, self-preservation. The Stoics applaud it as an heroic action; but it is a base, mean, and cowardly one; and betrays want of fortitude of mind to bear up under present adversity, and to meet what is thought to be coming on. However, no man has a right to dispose of his own life; God is the giver, or rather lender, of it, and he only has a right to take it away.

II. With respect to the subject of sin, it may be distinguished into internal and external; sins of heart, lip and life; or of thought, word and action. - 1. Internal sins, sins of the heart; the plague of sin begins there, that is the seat of it; it is desperately wicked, it is wickedness itself; and out of it all manner

of sin flows; the thoughts of it are evil, they are abominable to God, and very distressing to good men, who hate vain thoughts; the very thought of foolishness or wickedness is sin. The imagination of the thoughts of the heart is evil continually; the very substratum of thought, the motions of sin in the mind, work to bring forth fruit unto death; the desires and lusts of the mind are carnal and sinful, which are 'various; the lust of uncleanness in the heart; the lust of passion, wrath and revenge; the lust of envy, which the object of it cannot stand before, and which slays the subject of it; the lusts of ambition and pride; and which are thus summed up by the apostle, :/ lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, 1 John ii. 15.

Errors in the mind, false opinions of things contrary to the word of Godi all unreasonable doubts, even in saints themselves; and all the actings of unbelief, which proceed from an evil heart, come under this sort of sins, internal ones, or sins of the heart. — 2. Sins of the lip, or of words, which are external, openly pronounced, whether respecting God or man, and one another; a all blasphemy of God, evil speaking of men, cursing and swearing, lying one to another; all obscene and unchaste words, every sort of corrupt communication; all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and evil speaking; all foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient; yea every idle word comes into the account of sin, and will be brought to judgment; see Eph. iv. 25, &c.— 3. Outward actions of the life and conversation; a vain conversation, a course of sin, the garment spotted with the flesh, right eye and right hand-sins, and all that the members of the body are used as instruments in the commission of.

III. With respect to the parts of sin: they may be divided into sins of omission and sins of commission; when some things are left undone which should be done, and which are done when they ought not to be; such a distinction may be observed in the words of Christ, or however a foundation for it there is in them, Matt. xxiii. 23. and xxv. 42-44. and both these sorts of sins are very strongly expressed in Isai. xliv. 22-24. Sins of omission are against affirmative precepts, not doing what is commanded to be done; sins of commission are against negative precepts, doing what is forbidden to be done; see James iv. 17. IV. Sin may be distinguished by the principle from whence it arises. Some sins arise from ignorance, as in the princes of the world, that crucified the Lord of life and glory; in the apostle Paul when unregenerate, in persecuting the saints, and doing many things contrary to the name of Jesus; and which he did ignorantly, and in unbelief; and in others who know not their master's will, and so do it not, and yet pass not uncorrected; especially whose ignorance is wilful and affected, who know not, nor will understand, but reject and despise the means of knowledge, and say to God, depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways; the sins of others are presumptuous ones, and are done wilfully, knowingly, and of choice, and who are worthy of many stripes; see Luke xii. 47, 48. Some sins are through infirmity of the flesh, the power of Satan's temptations, and the snares of the world, which men are betrayed into