not only from the history of Adam's fall, but likewise from our own experience. For we sin in the same manner as Adam did, viz against the divine law, voluntarily, and being seduced by our own lusts."

42. Again, says Boston, "The corruption of nature is the river-head, which has many particular lusts in which it runs. What doth it avail to reform in other sins, while the great reigning sin remains in its full power? What though some particular lust be broken; if that sin," [namely, the lust of the flesh,] "the sin of our nature, keep the throne, it will set up another in its stead; and, while it stands entire, there is no victory.

CHAP. IV.

Ch. Theo.
P.1 ch. ii.

pp. 147,
148, 155.

Four-fo'd
State, pp.

39. 40, 107,

43. "It is an hereditary evil; propagated in nature, [or conveyed by natural generation.] Consider the confession of David, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 108. mother conceive me." Here he ascends from his actual sin to the fountain of it.

of Faith.

44. "By this sin" [of Adam and Eve] says the Westminster Confession Assembly, "they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body. They being the root of all mankind, the same death, in sin and corrupted nature, was conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation. From which original corruption, do proceed all actual transgressions."

CHAPTER V.

FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURE OF THE MYSTERY
OF INIQUITY.

ALL the foregoing testimonies are strictly true, as they have CHAP. V.
abundantly proved, not only from matters of fact, but from the
most pointed testimony of the sacred writings; such as the
following:

2. "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves together, and made

Gen. iii. 7.

themselves aprons. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." John, iii. 6.

And, "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it Jas i. 14, bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth 15. death." And many more proofs to the same purpose.

CHAP. V.

History of

3. Certainly, then, were it not that some misguided and sanctimonious priesthood had invented a scheme to gratify LUST, under the alluring and specious pretext of fulfilling an original, and afterwards basely violated, law of nature, which God gave to Adam in his state of innocence, it would verily seem that the very seat and fountain head of all sin and corruption, might have been discovered at once, to open view by no more than the bare removal of a fig leaf.

4. For they have pointedly proved that the sin of Adam and Eve was conveyed to their posterity by the works of natural generation; that all their posterity are shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin; that the original corruption of Adam and Eve, which conceived and brought forth sin was Lust; and that when Lust had conceived and brought forth sin, "the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked."

5. What could the aforesaid authors have said plainer, unless they had pointedly said, that their eating the forbidden fruit, was the very act by which Adam knew Eve his wife, when (whatever transgressions had been before) she conceived and brought forth a murderer ?

6. Here then is the mystery of the iniquity; first pointedly and clearly showing what the very root of all sin is, and how sin is propagated; and then again concealing the whole matter under the specious pretext of a command or an ordinance of God, so abundantly acknowledged to have been most basely violated. What! is God the author of sin? Nay, in nowise; the same writers have justly proved that he is not!

7. It is certain that the law of nature which forms a cloud and spreads it over the earth, creates it for the purpose of watering the earth, and causing it to be fruitful.

8. And it is equally certain, that the law of the eternal WORD, which created man soul and body, male and female, intended by the very law of their creation, that they should be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue

it.

9. For this very purpose, they were endowed with those animal faculties and sensations, which in due subordination to the law and command of God, would have innocently constituted them one flesh, in the work of generation.

10. But it is as certain and positive a truth, that those instincts of nature, or animal properties, never were intended to lead and govern the soul, or even to act without the soul's decided approbation. And therefore, while the soul Redemp p. kept its first rectitude, and subdued every inferior passion, which might arise in consequence of his state of probation, there never could have been the least cause or foundation for shame.

70.

11. And thus, while the man and the woman stood in upright- CHAP V. ness and innocence, they were both naked, and were not ashamed, "which certainly implies," says a judicious author, "not only that their nakedness was no just cause of shame, but that they never could have known it, had their innocence continued.

12. "Before the fall, they doubtless knew that they had no clothing; but now their eyes were opened, and they had acquired a criminal knowledge, and became sensible of a passion to which they had ever before been strangers, namely, shame.

13. "The origin of this will be easier to account for, if we supposed with some,* that the juice of this tree was inebriating [2.e. intoxicating]; since we know from common observation, that juices of such a quality will excite debauchery, produce strange commotions in the animal frame, and give a strong predominancy to the animal appetites.

14. Under these circumstances we need not wonder at the subterfuges [tricks or evasions] to which they ran, since it is never expected that the conduct of persons under the power of intoxication, or the oppression of guilt, should be perfectly consistent with the rules of cool reflection."

15. According to the above, shame was the effect of a criminal knowledge, which is most strictly true. By eating the forbidden fruit, they knew that they were naked; and hence that shameful act is so commonly expressed by the term knowing.

16. Adam knew Eve his wife. Doubtless he was well acquainted with her before; but now he knew her in a shameful and criminal manner, in consequence of which they walked naked, and their shame appeared. And from hence the above author makes the following plain observation :

Redemp. p.

71.

17. "It is remarkable, that the custom of covering the pri- Hist. of vate parts should so generally obtain, even among barbarous nations; an entire disuse of clothing in both sexes is, perhaps, nowhere practised, except where promiscuous intercourse is also allowed, and men and women couple like the brutes."

18. Therefore, as shame is the effect of a criminal knowledge, and as the seat of that criminal knowledge is manifest by the universal practice of all nations in hiding it, hence it is evident that the criminality of that knowledge arose from an unseasonable and untimely use of those bodily organs and animal faculties, which were created to be under the government and direction of a superior law.

• Milton gives a striking description of the effects of the forbidden fruit on Adam and Eve, in the following lines:

-But that false fruit
Carnal desire inflaming: he on Eve
Began to cast lascivious eyes; she him
As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn."

Paradise Lost, Book IX.

CHAP. V.

19. And as the first transgressors of the human race covered the parts through which they had violated the command of God, with fig-leaves, so, under a specious pretext, sin has reigned since the fall, and deceived the nations of the earth. And this is brought to light that the words of God might be fulfilled, Isai. iii. 17. "The Lord will discover their secret parts."

Four-fold

50.

20. And yet that LAWLESS and unruly passion of LUST, in polluting and corrupting the order of creation, has claimed either the law of nature, or the express command of God for its authority; although it is so evident that by the very first act of that kind in which man went forth, he violated not only the law of nature, but God's express command!

21. It is also generally acknowledged, (as we have shown. from eminent authorities,) that shame is the effect of sin, and that the sinful nature of Adam and Eve is conveyed to their posterity by the very act of natural generation.

22. How then is it, that the fallen posterity of Adam have, under the sacred pretext of a command or ordinance of God, pretended to solemnize that which in itself is profane, and to sanctify that unclean thing, out of which they have proved to a demonstration that they can bring nothing clean?*

66

23. Well, therefore, said Boston: Adam confesseth his State, p. 49, nakedness, which he could not get denied, but not one word he says of his sins; here was the reason of it, he would fain have hid it if he could. Adam's children need not be taught this hellish policy, for before they can well speak, (if they cannot get the fact denied,) they will cunningly lisp out something to lessen their fault, and lay the blame upon another.

24. "Nay, so natural is this to men, that in the greatest of sins they will lay the fault upon God himself. And was not this one of Adam's tricks after his fall? The man said, 'The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.' He makes his apology in the first place, and then comes to his confession! His apology is long, but his confession is very short, as if he was afraid his meaning should have been mistaken!

25. "The woman,' says he, or that woman! as if he would have pointed the judge to his own work. There was but one woman then in the world, yet she is as carefully marked out in his defence as if there had been ten thousand!

26. 666 The woman whom thou gavest me!' Here he speaks as if he had been ruined with God's gifts! and to make the shift

Notwithstanding those plain demonstrations, some affect to believe that the corruptions of the fallen nature of man are not propagated by generation; but that the offspring of man now come into the world as pure as when first created. But this is a contradiction of every known principle of existence, for no fact is better known than that every corrupt plant propagates its corruptions by its seed.

look the blacker, it is added to all this, Thou gavest to be with CHAP. VI. me, to stand by me as a helper, as if he would have fathered an ill design upon the Lord, in giving him this gift!

27. "He says not, the woman gave me, but The woman she gave me!' emphatically, as if he had said, she, even she, gave me of the tree. This much for his apology; but his confession. is quickly over : 'And I did eat,' And there is nothing here to point to himself, and as little to shew what he had eaten. How natural is this black art to Adam's posterity! He that runs may read it."

28. So plainly have discerning men pointed out the very root and foundation of all iniquity, and proved their remarks, not only from the sacred writings, but from common observation, drawn from the most noted and universal facts.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY FURTHER REVEALED.

AFTER all that has been said concerning the root of human depravity, yet such is the deceitfulness of that lawless and corrupt nature of the serpent which man imbibed by the fall, and such is the depth of that "mystery of iniquity," as to claim its right of indulgence, under the covert of the original law of God -an ordinance of heaven!

2. And not only so, but whenever it is molested by God's claim to the principal seat of man's affections, it has the impertinence to question :-How could Adam violate the law of nature in knowing his wife, when she was designedly made for And it is also well known, that all the corruptions of blood and foul disorders with which parents are affected, are infused into their offspring by natural generation. It is equally certain that the children are affected, more or less, according to circumstances, by all the mental propensities of their parents. It is in this manner that the "iniquities of the father are visited upon the children," and not by any arbitrary decree. (Ex. xxxiv. 7.)

Therefore, parents who seek to justify the carnal works of the flesh, under the pretext of a command of God to be fruitful and multiply," assume a solemn and weighty responsibility. Let them first examine whether they are in a state to propagate such fruit as God required, by the original order of nature; and, if they are in a state to propagate either physical or mental corruption and misery in their offspring, let them know that, in thus doing for their own gratification, they sin against every principle of God's creation, and they will surely have to meet a righteous and just reward.