of Adam; and therefore in a proper Senfe, in Adam all die.

Now this is thought very hard, that the Sin of Adam should bring Death upon all his Pofterity; that one Man finned, and all Men muft die; and therefore, I fuppofe, no Man will think it improper to my prefent Argument, to give you fuch an Account of this Matter, as will evidently juftify the Wisdom and Goodness, as well as the Juftice, of GOD in it.

I. In the firft Place then I observe, That an immortal Life in this World, is not the Original Right of earthly Creatures, but was wholly owing to the Grace and Favour of God. I call that an Original Right which is founded in the Nature of Things; for otherwife, properly speaking, no Creatures have any Right, either to Being, or to Subfiftence, which is a Continuance in Being: It is the Goodness and the Power of God, which both made the World, and upholds and sustains all Things in Being. And therefore Plato confeffes, That the inferior Gods, thofe immortal Spirits, which he thought worthy of Divine Honours, were both made by the Supreme God, and did fubfift by his Will: For he who made all Things, can annihilate them again when he pleafes; and therefore their Subfiftence is as much owing to the Divine Goodness, as their Creation. But yet there

is a great Difference between the natural Gift and Bounty of God, and what is fupernatural, or above the Nature of Things: What God makes by Nature immortal, so that it has no Principles of Mortality in its Conftitution, Immortality may be faid to be its natural Right, because it is by. Nature immortal, as Spirits and the Souls of Men are. And in this Cafe it would be thought very hard, that a whole Race of immortal Beings fhould be made mortal for the Sin of one; which would be to deprive them of their natural Right to Immortality, without their own Fault. But when any Creature is immortal, not by Nature, but by fupernatural Grace, God may bestow this fupernatural Immortality upon what Conditions he pleases, and take the Forfeiture of it when he fees fit. And this was the Cafe of Man in Innocence: His Body was not by Nature immortal; for a Body made of Duft, will naturally resolve into Duft again; and therefore without a fupernatural Power, an earthly Body must die for which Reason God provided a Remedy against Mortality, the Tree of Life, which he planted in Paradife, and without which Man could not be immortal: So that Mortality was a neceffary Confequence of his lofing Paradife; for when he was banished from the Tree of Life, he could have no Remedy nor Prefervative against Death. Now I fuppofe, no Man will queftion, but God might very

juftly

juftly turn Adam out of Paradife for his Difobedience, and then he muft die, and all his Pofterity die in him: For he being by Nature mortal, must beget mortal Children; and having forfeited the Tree of Life, he and his Pofterity, who are all fhut out of Paradife with him, muft neceffarily die: Which takes nothing from them, to which any Man had a Right, (for no Man had a natural Right to Paradife, or the Tree of Life) but only leaves them to those Laws of Mortality, to which an earthly Creature is naturally fubject. God had promised Paradife and the Tree of Life to no Man, but to Adam himself, whom he created and placed in Paradife; and therefore he took nothing away from any Man, but from Adam, when he thrust him out of Paradise. Children indeed muft follow the Conditions of their Parents. Had Adam preserved his Right to the Tree of Life, we had enjoyed it too; but he forfeiting it, we lost it in him, and in him die: We loft, I fay, not any thing that we had a Right to, but fuch a fupernatural Privilege, as we might have had, had he preferved his Innocence: And this is a fufficient Vindication of the Justice of God in it. He has done us no Injury; we are by Nature mortal Creatures, and he leaves us in that mortal State: And to withdraw Favours upon a reasonable Provocation, is neither hard nor unjuft.

II. For

II. For we must confider farther, when Sin was once entered into the World, an immortal Life here became impoffible, without a conftant Series of Miracles. Adam had finned, and thereby corrupted his own Nature, and therefore must neceffarily propagate a corrupt Nature to his Pofterity: His earthly Paffions were broke loofe, he now knew Good and Evil: and therefore was in the Hands of his own Counsel, to refufe or chufe the Good or Evil, And when the animal Life was once awakened in him, there was no great Dispute which way his Affections would incline: To be fure it is evident enough in his Pofterity, whose boisterous Paffions act fuch Tragedies in the World. Now fuppofe in a State of Innocence, that the Tree of Life would have preferved Men immortal, when no Man would injure himself nor another; when there was no Danger from wild Beasts, or any intemperate Air, or poisonous Herbs; yet, I suppose, no Man will fay, but that even in Paradife itself, (could we fuppofe any fuch Thing) Adam might have been devoured by a Beaft, or killed with a Stab at the Heart; or had there been any Poifon there, it would have killed him, had he eaten or drunk it, or elfe he had another Kind of Body in Paradife than we have now, for I am fure that these Things would kill us: Confider then how impoffible it is, that in this fallen apoftate State, God

G

fhould

should preferve Man immortal, without working Miracles every Minute: Men's Paffions are now very unruly, and they fall out with one another, and will kill one another if they can; of which the World had a very early Example in Cain, who flew his Brother Abel; and all those Murthers and bloody Wars fince that Day put this Matter out of Doubt: Now this can never be prevented, unless God should make our Bodies invulnerable, which a Body of Flesh and Blood cannot be without a Miracle: Some die by their own Hands, others by wild Beasts, others by evil Accidents; and there are so many Ways of destroying these brittle Bodies, that it is the greatest Wonder that they laft fo long. And yet Adam's Body in Paradise was as very Earth, and as brittle as our Bodies are; but all this had been prevented, had Men continued innocent; they would not then have quarrelled or fought; they would not have died by their own Hands, nor drank themselves into a Fever, nor overloaded Nature with riotous Exceffes; there had been no wild Beafts to devour, no infectious Air, or poisonous Herbs, and then the Tree of Life would have repaired all the Decays of Nature, and preferved a perpetual Youth; but in this State we are now, the Tree of Life could not preferve us immortal if a Sword or Poison can kill; which fhews us how impoffible, it was, but that Sin and Death must come into the World together:

Man