CHAPTER IV. THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY, OR THE MAN OF SIN, REVEALED: CHAP. IV. MAN being created male and female, with a living soul, in which was implanted the image and law of an all-wise, and perfectly holy God; and being united to a terrestrial body, endowed with animal faculties, sensations and affections, which all originated from the Fountain of true happiness and everlasting life, he stood in a noble capacity to honor and glorify his Creator. 1 Cor. iii. 16. 2 Cor. vi. 16. 2. Thus man in his state of innocence, stood as the temple of God. As it is written, "Ye are the temple of the living God." Here were deposited his righteous laws and commands, relating to the order and government of the creation. 3. While as yet the man stood alone, before the woman was formed, the Lord God brought unto Adam every beast of the Gen. ii. 19, field, and every fowl of the air, and whatsoever he called every living creature, that was the name thereof. But among all those for Adam there was not found an help to be with him. 20. Ch. ii. 21, 22. 4. Now, upon the supposition that it might still have continued so, the deficiency in the order and glory of the creation of man would as sensibly appear, as it would for the natural body of a rational man, to be divided into two equal parts, the one part made extinct, and the other left destitute of those co-operating parts, without which his body could not be complete, nor his glory augmented. 5. But the Lord God, seeing that it was not good for the man to be alone, formed him in two parts, male and female; and these two parts constituted one entire and complete man as has been observed. 6. And in this capacity, they were endowed with co-operating faculties, sensations, and affections, which arising from the true Source of all goodness, were pure, innocent, and lovely; thus they were capable of being influenced by proper objects, to augment their happiness, as well as the honor and visible glory of the Creator. 7. Consider then, as the living soul of man, with all its rational faculties, in which the perfect law of God was implanted, was superior to all the animal sensations, faculties, or affections of his natural body; therefore sin could not have entered into man, but by a willing sacrifice of his reason, and a direct violation of God's law. 8. And, when man had once sacrificed his reason, and violated CHAP. IV. God's express command, by obeying the voice of the serpent through the woman; then the true order of God in the obedience of the inferior to the superior, was not only subverted, but an opposite spirit found an easy entrance into man, who stood as God's temple, claiming the sole right to man's obedience, "shewing himself that he is God." 9. So that it was by the first man's disobedience, that sin Rom. v. 12. entered the world, and death by sin, forasmuch as death is the wages of sin. And so death passed upon all men, in that all Adam's posterity have sinned. And therefore sin is not imputed to any, merely on account of Adam's original sin and transgres- Ezek. xviii. sion, but their own sins are imputed to them. "The soul that 20. sinneth it shall die." 10. And as, by a subversion of the true order of God, and the express violation of this law, a sinful nature entered into the world, so it took the possession and government of all those faculties and affections of body and mind, which had constituted man in his state of innocence, a noble creature. 11. And thus, that wicked taking possession of all that constituted man in his innocent state, constituted himself the man of sin, and placed himself as God, in the highest and most noble seat of man's affections; and there he sat, ever ready to oppose and exalt himself above and against every work and dispensation 3, 4, 7. of God's grace. 12. And this he did particularly in the days of Christ's first appearing, because he was essentially disturbed. As saith St. Paul, "the mystery of iniquity doth already work." 13. Here then, even in the fall of man from his first rectitude, was the rise of the man of sin, that son of perdition; and not in some certain man, or set of men called popes, four or five thou sand years after man had received the very nature and disposition of the serpent. Nay, when a sinful nature first entered into man, there was the beginning of the man of sin. 14. LOVE is the fulfilling of God's pure and perfect law. The highest, and most noble of all those affections which God placed in man, and the chief and leading motive of all his actions, was LOVE. While this remained as his ruling principle, there could be no transgression, nor any cause of fear or shame. 15. But, when man rebelled against his Creator, and his sweet and noble disposition and affections were drawn into the foul and rebellious nature of the serpent, then was his LOVE converted into LUST, and it became the principal seat, and fountain head of the whole serpent's nature and influence; the leading cause of every vile affection, and of every evil work; and its gratifications the primary object of man's desires. 2 Thes. ii. Rom xiii. 10. 1 John, iv. 7-21. Rom. v. 5. CHAP. IV. Mat. xxiii. 33. John, viii. Concord. Lust. Gen. iv. 1. 16. And hence it is, that Christ not only calls the fallen race of Adam, serpents, and a generation of vipers, but further says, "Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do." And hence Cruden, also, among many others, calls lust, "that original corruption which inclines men to sin and evil." 17. And thenceforth, even from man's first rebellion, the fallen posterity of Adam and Eve, could call LUST by the name of LOVE, with the same propriety, and through the same old deceitful and foul spirit, by which the first deceived woman could call a murderer, the fruit of her rebellion, "a man from the Lord!" 18. And herein lies the deceitfulness of sin, and the very mystery of iniquity, in believing that to be LOVE, which in truth is nothing but LUST, and thus pretending to claim a just and innocent right to the original law and order of God, as Isai. xxv. 7. though it had never been violated. This is verily "the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." Gal. vi. 7, 8. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. 19. Doubtless it will be granted, that a violation of the good and wholesome laws of a nation, in a case of treason, is a political iniquity; and that the man who, either directly or indirectly violates the laws that are calculated to promote the peace and welfare of the nation, excludes himself from any active part in the administration of those laws. 20. And further, that neither he, nor his confederates, nor any of their descendants in the same line of treachery and rebellion, could ever claim any benefits arising from those laws, under any pretext whatever; but on the contrary, the whole law must stand as a pointed testimony, to judge and condemn the delin- . quents, and to show them the foulness of their crime. 21. And, should these traitors, after the most notorious violation of the laws by high treason, be able to insinuate themselves into the government, and finally supplant the nation by foreign oppression, under the pretence of supporting its original rights of freedom, here indeed would be a political mystery of iniquity. 22. Such is the case of which we are speaking; and such is the nature of the laws of men, which have arisen from second causes. Then, shall it be supposed, that the original and perfectly pure and just laws of the Most High God, are of less consequence than those of men? Shall they be violated with impunity, and that too under a pretext of obedience, without God's notice? 23. Nay verily, let it never be thought. "God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And CHAP. IV. though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be un- Prov. xi. punished." 24. The very laws of nature, being given of God in their pure and original state, were in themselves immutable in their order, and laid man under the most solemn obligations to obedience, and that precisely according to the directions of the Lawgiver. 25. And as the law was in itself perfectly consistent with the light and reason of his living soul, therefore every part of it must be punctually obeyed according to this light, and not according to the dictates of the serpent, nor the animal passions of an inferior nature. 26. The violation of the law of God, which included the violation of the law of nature by Adam the first, was of the most potent and universal kind, as is abundantly acknowledged by many sensible writers. Concerning which, Boston has the following: 21. State, pp. 96, 97. 27. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostasy from Four-fold God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commandments at once. They chose new gods. They made their belly their god, by their sensuality; self their god, by their ambition; yea, and the devil their god, by believing him, and disbelieving their Maker. 28. Though they received, yet they observed not that ordinance of God, about the forbidden fruit. They contemned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would needs carve out to themselves how to serve the Lord. Article 29. Again, says Cruden, "The honor and majesty of the Concord. whole law, was violated in the breach of that symbolical precept: [by eating of the forbidden fruit:] many sins were combined in that single act. 30. "Infidelity: This was the first step to ruin. When he distrusted the Fountain of truth, he gave credit to the father of lies. This sin included in it prodigious pride. No sooner created, than he aspired to be as God. 31. "Horrid ingratitude: Now in the midst of such variety and plenty, to be inflamed with the intemperate appetite for the forbidden fruit, and to break a command so equal and easy, what was it but a despising the rich goodness of his great Benefactor? 32. "Unaccountable and amazing folly: What a despicable acquisition tempted him out of his happiness! That the pleasures of taste and curiosity should outvie the favor of God, is the reproach of his reason, and makes the choice so criminal. 33. "A bloody cruelty to himself, and to all his posterity: Giving a ready ear to the tempter, he betrayed his trust, and at once breaks both the tables of the law, and becomes guilty of the highest impiety and cruelty." CHAP. IV. 34. Then certainly it must be evident, that the sin of Adam, including his posterity, who still continue in the same line of sin and rebellion, is in a spiritual sense, at least equal, if not far superior in magnitude to what might be called the highest treason in a political sense. 35. And therefore the fallen and still sinning posterity of Adam, could never, after the fall, claim any more right to those once violated laws of heaven, under any pretence whatever of keeping them, than Benedict Arnold and his confederates, could have claimed an active part in the free government of America, after the most pointed violation and breach of national trust, by his notoriously treacherous conduct at West Point. 36. What the sin of Adam and Eve was, and how that sin has been propagated by their posterity, has been very pointedly 2 Thes. ii. hinted at by many candid and sensible men; but how that sin has been kept concealed under a veil, has not been brought to light; nor could it be, until the time appointed of God. 3. 37. At present, the strict demands of light and truth require the veil to be removed, and the mystery of sin to be revealed. Of what some have written particularly on this subject, a few things may here be noticed. 38. "The Scriptures," says Cruden, "prove in many places, that the sin" [sinful nature] "of Adam was communicated to all his posterity," [by ordinary generation] "and that it has infected and Eph. ii. 3. corrupted it. We are by nature the children of wrath; that is, liable to punishment, and that hath relation to guilt. "By one Rom. v. 12. man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,' as a just sentence upon the guilty, "for that all have sinned." Job describes this sin, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.' Job, xiv. 4. Concord. 39. "It is the universal law of nature, that every thing produces its like, not only in regard of the same nature that is propagated from one individual to another, without a change of the species, but in respect of the qualities with which that Corruption. nature is eminently affected." See also Sermons, vol. iii. Ser. 48. 40. Again says Davies; "Flesh of flesh, and spirit of spirit. This is according to the established laws of generation, by which every thing begets its like." And therefore, by the works of generation, a sinful nature is communicated, and nourished by the industry of its propagators, otherwise sin could not be in the Hist. of Re- world. Hence the words of Edwards are very true; when speaking demp. p. 48. of Adam and Eve, he says: "All their posterity, by ordinary generation, are partakers of the fall, and of the corruption of nature that followed from it." 41. Again, says Osterwald: "Adam and Eve sinned freely and Gen. ii. 6, voluntarily, being deceived by the devil and their own lust. That the" [acting] "cause of sin is to be found in man, is evident, |