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SERMON II.

ROMANS V. 19.

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As by one mans difobedience many were made finners, fo by the obedience of one fhall many made righteous.

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HE origin of moral evil, or fin's entrance into the world, we firmly believe, as it is revealed and teftified in the word of God: No account concerning it can be more juft, and rational; than that which is recorded in the holy Scriptures.

ALL the attempts of heathens, and Infidels to account for it some other way, have only ferved to difcover their ignorance of GOD; and that the carnal mind is enmity, both, against him and his

law.

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Aisen already fhewn, was created " he made him upright, and works of his hands.

out of whole government was EDEN, a of delights, which the LORD GOD had planted, and richly furnished for him; having caused to grow therein every tree that is pleasant to the eye or good for food *: In the midst of the garden was the Tree of Life, and hard by it the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, of which man was forbidden to eat on pain of death; whofe very name imported that it was infinitely good in the fight of GoD, and for his creature man to obey, and be dependent on him; as on the contrary that it was infinitely evil in his fight, and for man to be disobedient, and rebellious: Thus GOD fet before him life and death †, good and evil; that by chufing life, and doing good, glory and life eternal might have been his portion, and of all bis children with him for ever; whereof, in cafe of obedience, God that cannot lic, had given him 'an affured fign by the true life, the facred fymbol and earnest of it.

BUT notwithstanding man had free liberty and full power granted him to eat of every tree in Paradife, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil only; (be aftonifh'd O Heavens, and trem

Gen. ii. 9.

Deut, xxx, 19.

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ble O Earth!) In the hour of trial he ftaggered, he finned, he fell-By harkening to the voice of his wife more than unto God he tranfgreffed the law of his maker, forfeited the promised reward and incurred the dreadful penalty: Thus fin entered into the World.

NEITHER did his tranfgreffion affect himself alone, but all mankind; by that one offence he involved his whole family in guilt and ruin with himself, which in this chapter the Apostle fhews at large, and teftifies; to which also he opposes as a glorious antithefis, the free and fuper-abounding grace of God to man, thro' JESUS CHRIST, the fecond Adam; which as a Light shining out of the midst of darkness, or as Life from the dead ; adds the brighteft luftre to the Heavenly pictures whereby the wonderful works of God are set forth, and presented to our view as one complete defign, and finished piece of infinite wisdom, juftice, goodness, power.

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GOD's love to man could not have appeared with that brightness, energy and glory, as it now does, if man had not fallen, and made way for its appearing: but what we loft by the first Adam is more then reftored to us by the fecond, according to GOD's eternal purpose which he purposed in CHRIST JESUS Our LORD: for as by one man's difobedience many

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made finners, fo by the obedience of one fball many be made righteous.

OUR text evidently contains two distinct propofitions, which for mutual illuftration are fet in oppofition to each other.

In the first, is fhewn the tranfgreffion of the firft Adam, and its deftructive influence on his pofterity-By one man's difobedience many were made finners.

In the fecond, is fhewed the righteousness of the Jecond Adam, and its faving influence on his people : by the obedience of one fhall many be made righteous.

My defign at prefent is to confider only the former of thefe propofitions, viz. that by one man's difobedience many were made finners;

wherein I fhall obferve the following method.

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FIRST, I fhall confider the person offending, and the nature of his offence.

SECONDLY, who are the many spoken of in the text, that were made finners by his difobedience.

THIRDLY, I fhall endeavour to fhew how they came to be fo affected by another's tranfgreffion, aš to be made finners by it.

FOURTHLY,

FOURTHLY, By whom or by what power and authority they were made, or determined, finners.

FIFTHLY, Its univerfal and deftructive influence.'

SIXTHLY, How the curfe of GOD attends it, and why...

LASTLY, Conclude with fuitable inferences.

FIRST, By the perfon is undoubtedly meant Adam, the first man that God created, whofe very name is mentioned, verfe 14. by whom fin, and death, the wages of fin entered into the world, and reigns, verse 12. which agrees with the account that Mofes hath given us of this awful affair in Gen. chap. iii. where we read that Adam having transgreffed the law of his maker, incurred thereby his highest displeasure, and had the fentence of death paffed upon him.

It is obfervable, that this fentence was not pronounced on the woman, although fhe was the first that finned, and the occafion alfo of her husband's tranfgreffing; nor doth it appear that she had any fenfe of fhame or nakednefs, untill Adam alfo had eaten the forbidden fruit; for then, and not before, he faith, the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; whereby is fignified, that the covenant of life and death was not made with the

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woman,

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